The issue of teaching children the Bible remains a distressing and perplexing problem for many. We have observed with discomforting frequency that many adults want first to know how to teach children the Bible without considering what the task is and without asking why do it. Any problems that we may face in teaching children the Bible will not be solved by focusing first on the how. The issue of children and the Bible is far more complex than the main question of methodology. In this book, we have focused primarily on the what and the why. We have given illustrations of the how, suggesting that these flow from and must serve the first two dimensions. The major task of this book is to set forth an approach that provides an opportunity for children to become actively engaged with the Bible.

This book is an important successor to the work done on using the Bible with children by Ronald Goldman, Violet Madge and Jean Holm. Its point of view is a clear one. Children are capable of getting to grips with the Bible in ways that are significant and useful to them, and achieve their own understandings, but too much Christian education consists of telling children about the Bible in a way which diverts them from coming directly to it as they are able.

About the Authors
Roger Gobbel is Professor of the Communication at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, and Gertrude Gobbel is Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Psychology Department at Gettysburg College.