The Spiritual Life of Children

"How young we are when we start wondering about it all, the nature of the journey and of the final destination, " writes the child psychiatrist Robert Coles in this national best seller, the culminating volume in his monumental trilogy, "The Inner Lives of Children." Dr. Coles brings us the words and colorful pictures of children - Christian, Moslem, Jewish, secular - face to face with the idea of God, in whose presence they seem to be fearless, outspoken, profound. No reader will forget the passion and openess of the American, Irish, Tunisian, Israelis, and other children as they speak and depict their views on the nature of God's wishes, the devil, heaven and hell, faith, skepticism. As Mary Gordon wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "The generosity of vision that characterizes Dr. Cole's enterprise enables him to create a climate where words of great beauty and truthfulness can be spoken."