Book Description

In Seeing Children, Seeing God, Pamela Couture explores the actual and potential relation of the church and the theological school to economically and socially (relationally) poor children. She argues that the solution to the problem of child poverty requires the shared responsibility of individuals, families, neighborhoods, congregations, governments, businesses, and international organizations because children develop within these multiple systems. With their unique access to these multiple systems, churches and theological schools are in a wonderful position to transform the social ecology within which children develop and to assist in children'¬"s flourishing. Concretely, what would it mean for the caring ministries of the church and those who teach and learn about them in seminary to make the issue of children and poverty central to what we do? How would this change the way we live? Pamela Couture argues from a Wesleyan perspective that caring for poor children is a means of grace'¬ ;a grace that deepens our experience as the adopted children of God. She draws explicitly on recent writings that have updated the Wesleyan theological tradition. Seeing Children, Seeing God will be of particular interest to everyone who is concerned about children and poverty, especially from a Wesleyan perspective. Key Features: '¬¢ Brief and accessible '¬¢ Offers a constructive, theologically sound response to the problem of children and poverty '¬¢ Recognizes and shares responsibility for solutions across society, but especially with the church and the seminary Key Benefits: '¬¢ Readers will understand the dynamics and extent of the problem of children living in poverty today '¬¢ Readers will understand ways in which theology has undergirded efforts to deal with this problem in the past '¬¢ Readers will understand and identify with the specifically Christian imperative to respond to this problem '¬¢ Readers will understand how various groups can contributed to a concerted effort to deal with the problem '¬¢ Readers will understand how the church has failed to deal with this problem in the past