Truth as aletheia in the Godly Play approach to religious education: A phenomenological reflection

This paper explores phenomenologically the way in which Godly Play, as an approach to religious education with young children devised by Jerome Berryman, provides an experience of truth as disclosure and openness – as a constant interplay between showing and hiding – though an exploration of Heidegger’s (and to a lesser extent, Gadamer’s) understanding of truth as aletheia. It applies this notion to one life expression in the Godly Play room in which a parable is presented to show how truth is revealed through the telling of the parable. Some implications for practice are posited as the result of this phenomenological reflection.