The first-person approach of Speaking of Faith host Krista Tippett insists that interviewees speak straight from the experience behind their own personal beliefs. How did they come to hold the truths they hold? How are religious insights given depth and nuance by the complexities of life? A theologically trained journalist, Tippett engages people at the personal level and also invites them to articulate the important ideas and the deep, relevant perspectives that faith can add to our private and public lives. The resulting programs have much to offer us as we delve into the spiritual development of young people. You can hear the programs listed below by clicking on the titles of the programs you are interested in.
The Spirituality of Parenting
How do we nurture the spiritual and moral awareness of the children in our lives? Rabbi Sandy Sasso has written books that help children and adults of many backgrounds discuss religion and ethics together. The spiritual life, she says, begins not in abstractions, but in concrete everyday experiences. And children need our questions as much as our answers.
Children and God
Maria Montessori, the great 20th-century educational pioneer, observed that children have an intuition for religious life at an early age that is matched only by their capacity to acquire language. In this program, Tippett talks with Yale pediatric oncologist Diane Komp and scholar and author Robert Coles and explores the spiritual wisdom and intelligence of children—including their ability to process the difficult realities of life. All of the perspectives in this program — including the children who shared their wisdom with us — suggest that children intuit the complexity, the light and the darkness of the world around them. Their observations and questions deserve serious attention and can become moments of instruction for the adults in their lives.
