Pathic knowing, lived sensibility and phenomenological reflections on children’s spirituality

Pathic knowledge is a form of non-cognitive knowledge emanating from the body and the felt sense of being in the world. This paper re-interprets one particular phenomenological reflection from the author’s original research (that set out to determine some characteristics of children’s spirituality) through the lens of pathic knowing. While the reflection considered was, in the original research, gleaned from hermeneutic phenomenological insight, this paper re-interprets that reflection through the lens of pathic knowing via four modalities – actional knowing, situational knowing, relational knowing and corporeal knowing – to present a more robust phenomenological reflection on this life expression, shedding new light upon the role of the body as a legitimate way of knowing in children’s spirituality.