CHILDREN see Jesus as a “rather pallid figure” and are confused about almost every aspect of His life and mission, research has found.

The lack of understanding about the founder of Christianity includes children who believe Christians at Easter celebrate Christmas or even chocolate, and others who think that Jesus died on the Cross “to replenish our sins”.

According to the study, funded by the Jerusalem Trust, a Sainsbury family charity, Jesus has been turned into “a very nice secular humanist, a nice chap, who wanted everyone to be nice to each other”.

Researchers at the University of Exeter surveyed nearly 500 children. They included children aged 7-11 in ten junior schools and children aged 11-14 in one comprehensive, one Church of England, one Methodist and two independent schools. Nearly half the children were Christian and nearly a third were Muslim.

The aim of the research, part of a project started in 2000 and led by Terence Copley, a former teacher, is to help with the production of teaching materials for religious classes.

While most of the children knew that Jesus had a reputation as a caring person, fewer than one in ten believed that Jesus was, or is, God. A third found Him “a bit confusing” and more than a quarter thought him “hard to believe in”. The children struggled to understand Jesus’s death and Resurrection, and resorted to the language of magic to describe him, linking the miracles with the magic tricks of Paul Daniels.

Asked about the parables, only one third of the children were able to name one — the most popular being the story of the Good Samaritan. Only 4 per cent understood parables in theological terms. Most saw them as secular, ethical tales.

Most of the children had started learning about Christianity from their school nativity play and concluded, therefore, that Christmas was the most important festival. But even if teachers had spent a whole term looking at the Resurrection, the researchers found, the majority of pupils still did not understand it.

“There is a perception that the Church and Christianity has an image problem and is perceived as, at best, outdated and, at worst, weird,” the report says. It also exposed differences between the faiths. “The Christian influence on non-Muslim children is different to the Muslim influence on Muslim children, for whom there is a much stronger and positive identification with their faith tradition.”

Christian children would say: “I believe in God.” A Muslim child would say: “I am a Muslim.”

Six of the group were atheists who said that they did not believe. None of these was Muslim. Many of the other children were guarded about faith, describing it as “too fantastic” or saying there was “no evidence”.

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In reference to the Resurrection, one boy asked: “If he rose from the dead, how come he ain’t here now?” Others wanted to know why Jesus didn’t help them today, and why he doesn’t “come down” and tell everyone He is true.

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