Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Tedd Tripp’s parenting manual, Shepherding a Child’s Heart , has shaped Reformed evangelical parents’ views because it treats parenting as a theological act and the child as a spiritual being. Tripp’s theology of the child is compared with those of John Calvin, Charlotte Mason, and Timothy Sisemore. This paper highlights an imbalance in Tripp’s theological approach, which overlooks the gift and giftedness of the created child and the presence of common grace. This imbalance leads to instrumentalisation, where the child is seen as a project of the parent rather than a full human being, as a Reformed theological method would anticipate.
Author: Robin Barfield
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7225122290