Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Coles, Robert - Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)

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Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)

SOURCE: "Thoughts on Religion From Children," in The New York Times, Vol. CXL, No. 48426, November 21, 1990, p. C20.

[In the following essay, Mitgang delves into the subject of spirituality and moral questioning in children, as explored by Coles in The Spiritual Life of Children.]

In the boldest and the most challenging of his series of books that probe the minds of children, Dr. Robert Coles turns on his tape recorder and listens to what they say about religion. It's an unchoate subject for adults and children. In The Spiritual Life of Children the answers are not particularly enlightening and for good reason it is hard to elicit original thoughts from the very young about religion that are not simplistic and derivative. Of course it's essential to heed the voices of children, but for the general reader wisdom doesn't necessarily come out of the mouths of babes.

The author, a...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Melvin J. Friedman (review date Fall 1982)
   2. Neil Postman (review date 19 January 1986)
   3. Katherine Paterson (review date 2 February 1986)
   4. Jonathan Kellerman (review date 9 February 1986)
   5. New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)
   6. John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)
   7. Kenneth L. Woodward (review date 6 September 1987)
   8. Jeff Dietrich (review date 13 September 1987)
   9. Fitzhugh Mullan (review date 8 May 1988)
   10. Helen Bevington (review date 26 February 1989)
   11. Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)
   12. Iain Bamforth (review date 7-13 July 1989)
   13. Sanford Pinsker (essay date Summer 1989)
   14. Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)
   15. Laura Sessions Stepp (review date 23 December 1990)
   16. The New Yorker (review date 7 January 1991)
   17. Virginia C. Hoch (review date 26 August-2 September 1992)
   18. A. J. S. (review date 1993)
   19. Michelle Huneven (essay date 3 October 1993)
   20. Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)
   21. Gail Russell Chaddock (review date 9 December 1993)
   22. Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)
   23. Paulina F. Kernberg (review date October 1994)
   24. Richard Bernstein (review date 27 January 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright