How Children in the Gospels Can Shape Inclusive Ministry: A Conversation with Amy Lindeman Allen

Dr Amy Lindeman Allen is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) in Indianapolis and only a couple of weeks ago was appointed to an endowed chair, the Indiana Christian Church Chair in Biblical Studies at CTS. Amy is also an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Allen earned her doctorate in New Testament and Early Christianity from Vanderbilt University, where she studied with distinguished postcolonial scholar Fernando F. Segovia.

In this episode, we focus on her latest book, The Gifts They Bring: How Children in the Gospels Can Shape Inclusive Ministry, which combines her expertise in the study of ancient children and childhood, with her passion for inclusive ministry including the place and role of children in the Church today. This book is written to be accessible for a broader audience, including churchgoers, families, and others.  I also want to mention Amy’s first book For Theirs is the Kingdom: Children in the Gospel According to Luke (Lexington/Fortress, 2019), which emerged from her doctoral research.

For people who want to explore the field of children and childhood in the biblical world more extensively, please check out a few collected volumes as a start: T&T Clark Handbook of Children in the Bible and the Biblical World, edited by Sharon Betsworth and Julie Faith Parker; Shawn Flynn’s volume, Children in the Bible and the Ancient World: Comparative and Historical Methods in Reading Ancient Children; and Children and Methods Listening To and Learning From Children in the Biblical World, edited by Kristine Garroway and me. There’s a lot of material out there, but this will introduce you to many of the major themes and writers. Amy’s work is a part of this burgeoning field of research.  Scholars in the field of ancient childhood define the research as childist criticism, seeking to locate and reclaim the voices of children from the biblical and other ancient texts, trying to understand their value and vulnerability. 

Dr. Allen’s scholarship and ministry emphasize the importance of acknowledging children’s presence, voices, and contributions in religious spaces. It is about more than just preparing them for the future; it’s about recognizing and celebrating their gifts here and now. Those of us who work in this field of biblical studies seem to all share a belief in the value of our work for current children today not just historical children and you will hear that in my conversation with Amy, who shares the core belief that children are not just the future of the church but an integral part of its present.

After the podcast, I told Amy I thought her book was a unique contribution to the study of children. She demurred and directed me to a book by Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder called When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspective. This book was influential on her own work. Amy also mentioned Heather McGhee’s book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together with respect to the way in which black children in the USA are so often treated differently than white children, not allowed to be children, though the book is much broader than that.

With respect to parthenos, the Greek word translated as virgin, I recommended Lauren Caldwell’s book Roman Girlhood and the Fashioning of Femininity and Giulia Sissa’s book Greek Virginity. These are helpful books for understanding the construction of girlhood in antiquity and how that still has repercussions today. These books are definitely, though, academic treatises. 

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. 

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me at jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca. Let me know what you think.

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Thanks so much for listening and remember what matters most.

John W. Martens