Evil Children in Religion, Literature, and Art (Cross-Currents in Religion and Culture)

Evil Children in Religion, Literature and Art explores the genesis, development, and religious significance of a literary and iconographic motif, involving a gang of urchins, usually male, who mock or assault a holy or eccentric person, typically an adult. Originating in the biblical tale of Elisha's mockery (2 Kings 2.23-24), this motif recurs in literature, hagiography, and art, from antiquity up to our own time, strikingly defying the conventional Judeo-Christian and Romantic image of the child as a symbol of innocence. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Plates......Page 10 Preface......Page 11 List of Abbreviations......Page 16 Children and religion......Page 20 The sins of the sons......Page 23 The good, the bad, and the ursine......Page 31 Ancient views of the child......Page 47 Tertullian and Augustine......Page 55 Greek fathers......Page 62 Later Latin fathers......Page 64 Medieval popular views......Page 72 Abusing the Man of Sorrows......Page 75 Iconographic reflections before 1450......Page 78 Iconographic reflections after 1450......Page 85 Hagiographic adaptability......Page 101 Pelting the poverello......Page 106 Pueri mali reduces......Page 112 Pictorial representations......Page 115 Modifying Ariès through Voragine......Page 118 Reformation readings of Elisha’s mockery......Page 121 Picaresque and carnival influences......Page 125 Cervantes......Page 127 Shakespeare......Page 132 Ambiguities of innocence......Page 133 Romantic and Victorian views of 2 Kings 2.23–24......Page 144 Kierkegaard......Page 151 Dostoevsky......Page 157 Humour in the horror......Page 161 7 Twentieth-Century Antitypes......Page 164 Literary legacies of 2 Kings 2.23–24......Page 165 ‘For them, there was no better diversion’......Page 171 Bethel boys around the world......Page 173 Conclusion......Page 194 Real absence......Page 200 From the road to Bethel, to Neverland......Page 203 Notes......Page 208 Biblical Index......Page 252 General Index......Page 257

Evil Children in Religion, Literature and Art explores the genesis, development, and religious significance of a literary and iconographic motif, involving a gang of urchins, usually male, who mock or assault a holy or eccentric person, typically an adult. Originating in the biblical tale of Elisha's mockery ( Kings 2.23-24), this motif recurs in literature, hagiography, and art, from antiquity up to our own time, strikingly defying the conventional Judeo-Christian and Romantic image of the child as a symbol of innocence.

"Evil Children in Religion, Literature, and Art explores the genesis, development, and religious significance of a motif involving a gang of urchins, usually male, who mock or assault a holy or eccentric person. Originating in the biblical tale of Elisha's mockery (2 Kings 2.23-24), this motif recurs in literature, hagiography, and art from antiquity to our own time."--Jacket The tale in 2 Kings 2 about what happened to the prophet Elisha on his way from Jericho up to Bethel is hauntingly brief: approached by some little boys from the city who jeer at him, chanting 'Go up, you baldhead' (v. 23b), he turns, sees them, curses them in Yahweh's name, and two shebears emerge from the woods and maul 42 of the boys ( v. 24b).