No abstract

This original web-based database was developed at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) as part of the international research project “Drawings of gods”, which explores children's representations of supernatural agents. Its primary purpose is to store and organize data and metadata to be easily accessible to all affiliated researchers. However, anyone interested in the matter can view the drawings, as they were made publicly available. At present, our corpus is composed of over 5'100 drawings collected in different parts of the world (i.e., Japan, Russia, Switzerland, Romania, USA and Iran) and yet constantly developing.

This introduction presents the project Children’s Drawings of Gods, relating its history from its origins through the present day. Following this recounting, we explain the organisation of this volume, introduce its parts and subparts, and briefly describe the content of each chapter.

No abstract

To speak of the Romanian village today is to consider a reality of life populated more and more by elderly people and children whose parents work outside the home, in town, or even abroad. The quality of life of the elderly remaining in the village is, in this context, a major concern for the political authorities and religious leaders. Indeed, many studies have shown that taking into account the religious and spiritual dimension contributes to the well-being of seniors. Recent research in Switzerland has highlighted the fact that many elderly people who live in senior care facilities are interested in talking about death with someone they trust. This trusted person is not necessarily the priest or chaplain. For many residents, this role is given to someone within the elderly person's network of family and friends (spouse, daughter, niece, close friend, etc.). What happens when this network is empty and the elderly person is more isolated? We propose to think about how these observations can be transposed into a practice of spiritual care adapted to the context of the Romanian village.