Catholicism in YA Literature: A Theological Perspective

Abstract

Though modern children’s literature owes a clear debt to religious tradition, the majority of literature written for young readers today avoids discussion of religion. Texts invested in explicitly religious exploration are often a product of religious or non-mainstream presses—and are quite often proselytic, resulting in a binary distinction of children’s and young adult literature as either secular (religiously neutral) or religious (overtly proselytizing). What results in mainstream children’s and young adult literature is a noticeable dearth of texts in which the religious experience is handled as a serious and significant element of the child’s life.