Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the main aspects of the Christian theology of childhood based on the works of outstanding theologians of the 20th century: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, Paul Tillich, and Jurgen Moltmann. The preoccupation with understanding the figure of the child in Western Christianity is motivated by several factors: the undeniable importance of theology as a tradition of interpreting the existential constraints of the human condition, the deep influence of Christian teaching on secular concepts of childhood, as well as the need to stand in defense of theological knowledge against its reactionary appropriation. It is proposed to begin reflection on the problems of the theology of childhood with the question of secularization, which Bonhoeffer characterized as the world's coming of age. The symptoms of such maturation are a crisis of responsibility in an atomized society, powerlessness, and despair from being doomed to remain in a self-closed system moving towards its own destruction. In the eyes of theologians, the figure of the child turns out to be a symbol of the incompleteness of the history of the world and, in the context of Christian eschatology, of the possibility of saving humanity. For a world that has lost its historical dimension, the child comes across, in Moltmann's words, as a metaphor of hope. Theology emphasizes the intrinsic value and uniqueness of every individual childhood experience, while at the same time seeing it as an analogy of the universal relationship between the human community and God. The model of this relationship implies not only acceptance of the world and its law, but also reprehension leading to liberation from the law in divine love. In theological interpretations the Christian imperative to be like children appears as the cornerstone of universal ethics and political practice, which is necessary for humanity to overcome the catastrophic historical situation.