![]() For Rahner, childlikeness or childhood is qualified by attributes such as ‘openness,’ ‘trustful submission to control by another,’ ‘the courage to allow fresh horizons… to be opened up before one,’ and ‘a readiness to journey into the untried and the untested.’ Rather than literal youth, Rahner argues that it is the childlike spirit of adventure, courage, and trust that is preserved in the mature Christian adult. The task of increasing childlikeness in maturity appears to be a contradiction in terms, until one understands Rahner’s particular conception of childhood. He writes, ‘In the child a man begins who must undergo the wonderful adventure of remaining a child forever, becoming a child to an ever-increasing extent, making his childhood of God real and effective in this childhood of his, for this is the task of his maturity.’ Karl Rahner, for instance, claims that childhood is both the beginning and the end of a truly mature Christian experience. The precise nature of this ‘childhood’ has intrigued different thinkers attempting to define a Christian theology of the child. ![]() ![]() ![]() In Mark 10:15, Jesus implies that childhood, or the quality of childlikeness, is necessary for those seeking to enter the kingdom of God. ![]() Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. ![]()
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