Connecting the Christian Faith with Children (part 5)

5. Children through Church History

Throughout Church history, reflection on and exploration of the narratives and teachings of Scripture has led people to struggle with questions about the true standing of children before God. The theological debate on the nature of humanity has, at its heart, asked the question “are children by nature innocent, good beings, or are children by nature evil depraved beings?”[1]

Augustine (354-430)

Augustine’s reading of Romans 5.12 (‘All had sinned in Adam’) and his conviction that judgement applied even to infants has, for more than 1500 years, “formed and informed, transformed and deformed Christian attitudes toward children.”[2] Augustine argued that, “just as infants gain physical strength as they mature, so they assume greater accountability for their actions.”[3] But all are infected with ‘original sin’, and unbaptised infants are excluded from salvation.

Aquinas (1225-1274)

Thomas Aquinas followed Augustine with a notion of graded responsibility, claiming that “increasing age, grace and virtue order one’s passions and one’s actions, bringing one closer either to perfection or to damnation.”[4] By contrast, though, Aquinas was convinced of the “manifest actual innocence”[5] of those in the first stage of childhood: Infantia: “Babies or young children, lacking reason, are not intentional moral agents … they cannot be held accountable for anything. They are … incapable of actual sin.”[6] However, Aquinas held that, although such infants are “undeserving of damnation, since they are incapable of actual sin, they are also undeserving of salvation, since they still bear the stain of original sin.”[7] Hence, unbaptised infants are consigned to ‘limbo’, “denied intimate union with God but spared the physical, spiritual, and psychological pain of hell.”[8] (This is a doctrine held by the Roman Catholic Church until 2007.)

According to Aquinas, “a second stage of childhood begins with the dawning of rational thought.”[9] At about the age of seven, a child gains the capacity for “formal learning, moral accountability, sin and virtue.”[10] They can “desire and request baptism … receive the Eucharist, and … even make simple vows.”[11] Aquinas seems quite indulgent of the young, making allowances for them as “their minds, spirits and bodies continue to grow.”[12] But he “treats children past the age of puberty as adults in ecclesiastical and moral matters.”[13]

Luther (1483-1546)

Luther, too, recognised developmental stages, and a gradation of responsibility for sin, in the life of the child. Yet he also held “children up in their very neediness and simplicity as the model of faith.”[14]

In addition, Luther wrote a number of catechisms, which “initiated the young in the faith into the believing community’s vision of life … it gave them a clear point of orientation in the world. It provided for them a conceptual vocabulary …”[15] Luther’s catechisms were effective “in sustaining a distinctive piety.”[16]

Luther’s concern for children can be seen in his assertion that “attending to children’s physical welfare, their vocational prospects, their need to learn of God’s grace … human care and affection – this is an essential part of all Christian discipleship. ‘Indeed, for what purpose do we older folk exist, other than to care for, instruct, and bring up the young?’”[17]

Calvin (1509-1564)

John Calvin was another who viewed children as a “metaphor for the religious life of adult Christians,”[18] and his writings “bear witness to the importance of children in church and society.”[19] Adults in Reformation times “were not indifferent to but rather profoundly interested in – and often deeply affectionate toward – children.”[20] And it is clear that Calvin, too, was “intensely interested in children and child rearing.”[21] He was involved, “often quite personally, in the implementation of public policies that had important implications for children”[22] and, like other Protestant preachers, “did not use the doctrine of original sin to underscore the sinful character of children.”[23] While making it clear that children are not exempt from original sin, Calvin dwells less on their sinfulness, and “is more appreciative of the positive character of children … than some of his forebears … or successors.”[24]

Calvin, like his predecessors and contemporaries, held a developmental model of childhood, dividing it into “three stages, each lasting approximately seven years,”[25] and states that “the younger the child, the less he or she manifests the effects of sin.”[26] He argues, too, that “adult believers ought to imitate children’s natural simplicity but not their lack of understanding.”[27]

With the Psalmist (Psalm 8), Calvin views young children as “mature proclaimers of God’s goodness.”[28] And, arguing against “Anabaptists’ insistence that a personal faith precede the sacrament, he suggests that no one can prove that infants themselves do not believe.”[29]

“Calvin … held that the church had an obligation for a program of religious education in order to inspire and guide children to lives of piety,”[30] and he called “for a program of weekly catechetical instruction and for teaching young children to sing psalms so that they might help lead congregational singing.”[31] “Parents were required (and … reminded) to bring their children to lessons”[32] at noon on Sundays. Thus John Calvin was committed to the “spiritual nurture of children.”[33]

Menno Simons (1496-1561)

Menno Simons held a theory of ‘complex innocence’: he recognised the “absence of both faithfulness and sinfulness in children,”[34] but also considered their innocence to be tempered by “an inherited Adamic nature predisposed toward sinning.”[35] He “delineates between a nature predisposed toward sin and actual sinning … identifying only the latter as that for which believers have responsibility before God.”[36] And he further argued that “Christ’s grace is not only for those within the Christian fold but for all children.”[37]

Simons’ perspective “utterly obligated parents and the Christian community to nurture children ‘in the fear of God by teaching, admonishing and chastising them,’ serving also as models of an ‘irreproachable life,’ so that when their children come to the ‘years of discretion,’ they may ‘hear, believe and accept the most holy Gospel of Jesus Christ’.”[38] Yet, perhaps uniquely, Simons held a “concern for spiritual maturity that does not always coincide with chronological maturity.”[39]

Simons’ Anabaptist identity, and the Anabaptist rejection of infant baptism and practice of believer’s baptism, suggests much about his understanding of children. However, Simons’ believed strongly that “all children are covered by God’s grace, whether or not they have made commitment of faith, and that parents and the Christian community together are responsible for nurturing children toward voluntary commitments of faith and discipleship.”[40]

A.H.Franke (1663-1727)

The “German pietism of the early eighteenth century emphasized not only the renewal of the individual believer but also the need to live out this renewal in love of the neighbour.”[41] So it was that Franke, a Lutheran Pastor, became concerned about the large number of children “in tremendous need because of poverty, neglect, and poor educational opportunities.”[42]

Franke began to offer “religious instruction in his church, preaching about child rearing,”[43] and went on to plan (in 1695) “a large complex of charitable and educational institutions, including a school for poor children and an orphanage.”[44] This was unheard of at the time. But by the time of Franke’s death, his schools and orphanages had “served over two thousand boys and girls.”[45]

Franke is “an important example of someone who opened his eyes to the needs of children … and who tirelessly devoted his resources and energy to serving them.”[46]

John Wesley (1703-91)

“From the beginning of the Wesleyan movement at Oxford in the 1720s, children were one of the primary focuses of concern, primarily children of the poor.”[47] The care and education of children, as well as the establishment of schools, was central to Wesley’s activities, and his “educational program … involved changing the whole person – body, mind and spirit.”[48]

“Wesley took his work with children seriously. He was concerned enough about their intellectual and spiritual welfare that he also warned the Methodist preachers under his supervision either to spend regular time with the children in their societies or else to cease being Methodist preachers and go back to their trade.”[49]

“Occasionally revivals broke out among the children in the Methodist Societies.”[50] Certainly, “young people were often at the core of local revivals,”[51] and Wesley believed that “God begins His work in children.”[52] The transformed lives of the children then “became models for the adults.”[53] Wesley often pointed out that “to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must become as little children.”[54] He realised that “children had limits, that they should not bear the burden of being considered the same as adults. And yet he also knew that some children had a capacity for knowledge and love that exceeded that of some adults.”[55]

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

“Jonathan Edwards viewed children as both sinners and saints: they were indelibly tainted with original sin, and yet also capable of genuine faith … and he took seriously their religious thoughts and questions.”[56] He “clearly believed that children had distinct needs of their own,”[57] and that “their faith had to be carefully nurtured.”[58] And yet he also “thought it was possible for God to choose even the tiniest infants for salvation.”[59]

Edwards “spent much of his life ministering to children ... he watched them play, listened to their questions, and even held religious meetings for them … [gathering] them together to teach them the Gospel.”[60] Edwards also preached “sermons directed explicitly to children,”[61] and children’s sermons eventually became a “popular part of Protestant worship during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”[62]

Edwards also held up children as models for adult Christians, saying that they symbolised “some of the best Christian qualities.”[63] Edwards even “allowed children to be admitted into full communion … By passing the bread and wine to them, he treated them as full spiritual equals.”[64] And he managed to “create a Christian theology that [valued] children’s spiritual needs.[65]

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)

Schliermacher demonstrated a “persistent interest in the subject of children” in much of his writing. “He saw children as naturally innocent, not encumbered with the supposed inheritance of original sin.”[66] But he did claim that the “evil influences of society … spoiled the natural goodness of children.”[67]

Schliermacher noted that, “in the Incarnation, childhood itself is affirmed as worthy by God.”[68] And a theme throughout his 1818 sermons on the Christian Household was “the wonderful blessing that children represent to the community of faith.”[69] He said that “adults need to recover a childlike ability to be present in the moment if they are to experience the full blessing of Christian faith,”[70] and that the church “neglects children at its own very significant peril.”[71]

Schleiermacher considered the education of children to be one of a pastor’s most important duties, and held such high expectations of the catechising pastor that he claimed that “when children who have been raised in church lose their faith in adulthood, it is often because they have received poor catechetical instruction.”[72] He “never believed the religious instruction of children was a task beneath him. He … [loved] the company of children, and he sought passionately to make the Christian faith accessible and attractive to them.”[73]

Horace Bushnell (1802-1876)

For Congregationalist Horace Bushnell, “a child could not be expected to have an adult faith.”[74] But Bushnell “emphasised the developmental nature of spiritual understanding,”[75] and stated that “Christ was ‘ a Saviour for infants, and children, and youth, as truly as for the adult age’.”[76] Bushnell advocated a special (non-voting) form of church membership for children, in which they were “not subject to church discipline but allowed full access to the Lord’s Supper.”[77] And he admitted that, “had he the chance to begin his career over, he would have preached first to children and only secondly to adults.”[78] He declared, “We call it coming down when we undertake the preaching to children; whereas it is coming up … to speak to the bright day-light creatures of trust and sweet affinities and easy conviction.”[79]

Karl Barth (1886-1968)

Barth spoke of children as “bearers of a promise of God’s grace.”[80] He considered them to be “needy beginners”[81] but ready to learn, “characteristically at play,”[82] and tuly free despite their limitations.[83] Thus, “young people are to be an example to the older in this ever fresh hearing of the divine command.”[84]

Karl Rahner (1904-1984)

Rahner argued that all “human persons – including children – are fundamentally oriented toward God,”[85] and spoke of the “unsurpassable value of childhood.”[86] He challenged the “Christian tendency to subordinate childhood to adult life,”[87] by showing how the child “is intended to be, right from the start, a partner of God.”[88] And he argued that “being a child has value in its own right.”[89]

Rahner reminds us that “for adults to attain the openness of children (which is what the kingdom of heaven requires), conversion is necessary.”[90] And he defines such openness as an “infinite openness to the infinite.”[91] Rahner’s theology reminds us “not only that our obligation is to nurture the children who are given to us and all that belongs to them as children, but that each one of us, again and again, must become that child we were in the beginning.”[92]

Rahner was bold to “address the pastoral needs of the young,”[93] although he did question whether “a catechism is the appropriate medium for the religious initiation of a child.”[94] It was one of Rahner’s contemporaries who observed that, often in Christian education, “instead of going in directly by the open doors of the child’s imagination and sense perception, we waste our time by knocking on the still bolted doors of his understanding and his judgement.”[95]

Feminist Theology

In contemporary times, some feminist theologians have pointed out how, in Western culture since the eighteenth century, “the movement of men out of the home and into the workplace had a powerful impact on … family life.”[96] Fathers began to have “less immediate involvement with domestic life and … children … In matters of education and spiritual formation, children had fewer male role models readily available.”[97]

But in the same period there has been little or no “developed teaching on children by the church itself.”[98] “Doctrines of human nature, salvation, and God remained amazingly adult-centred, forgetting that all people begin their lives as children and that many people spend a large proportion of their adult lives responsible for children in some way. [Such] theological neglect coincided with a broader societal neglect.”[99]

These feminists point to “the historical dilemma which assigns only to women the concern for ministries with women, children and youth.”[100] And they are particularly concerned for the “plight of children outside stable, two-parent families [where] children disappear into a market-driven society where the ultimate measures of value are utility and self-interest.”[101] In this society, the responsibilities of adults for children “assume paramount importance.”[102]

Much contemporary feminist theology “promotes the welfare of children”[103] and supports the “child’s claim as a worthy creation of God.”[104] They “invoke an eschatological image in which all are welcome to the table of God,”[105] and argue that “Christians are obliged to create a world in which ‘every child who wants might learn to dance’.”[106] We need to “be at the forefront of advocating … the protection of all children”[107] and calling for “justice for the ‘least of these’.”[108]

They point to the “utter vulnerability of children before the adults that create and shape their world,”[109] and believe that, while “children may harbour evil thoughts, … the depth and extent of their corrupt behaviour is in direct proportion to the actions of the adults in their midst.”[110] Sin is defined in “strikingly adult ways, as … leanings and control that most children have not yet acquired.”[111] And they claim that “sin is more something to which children fall victim than something they engage in as culprits.”[112]

[1] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.280
[2] Stortz, ‘Where or when was your servant innocent? Augustine on childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.79
[3] Stortz, ‘Where or when was your servant innocent? Augustine on childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.83
[4] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.111
[5] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.113
[6] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp.113-114
[7] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.114
[8] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp.114-115
[9] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.117
[10] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.117
[11] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.117
[12] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.119
[13] Traina, ‘A Person in the Making: Thomas Aquinas on Children and Childhood’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.119
[14] Strohl, ‘The Child in Luther;s Theology’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.144
[15] Strohl, ‘The Child in Luther;s Theology’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.149
[16] Strohl, ‘The Child in Luther;s Theology’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.149
[17] Strohl, ‘The Child in Luther;s Theology’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.159
[18] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.161
[19] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.161
[20] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp.162-3
[21] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.162
[22] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.163
[23] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.163
[24] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.169
[25] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.164
[26] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.165
[27] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.165
[28] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.166
[29] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.183
[30] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.186
[31] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.186
[32] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.187
[33] Pitkin, ‘“The Heritage of the Lord”: Children in the Theology of John Calvin’ , in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.193
[34] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.194
[35] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.194
[36] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.201
[37] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.203
[38] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp. 194-195
[39] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.204
[40] Miller, ‘Complex Innocence, Obligatory Nurturance, and Parental Vigilance: “The Child” in the Work of Menno Simons’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.195
[41] Bunge, ‘Education and the Child in Eighteenth-Century German Pietism: Perspectives from the Work of A. H. Franke’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.247
[42] Bunge, ‘Education and the Child in Eighteenth-Century German Pietism: Perspectives from the Work of A. H. Franke’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.252
[43] Bunge, ‘Education and the Child in Eighteenth-Century German Pietism: Perspectives from the Work of A. H. Franke’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.253
[44] Bunge, ‘Education and the Child in Eighteenth-Century German Pietism: Perspectives from the Work of A. H. Franke’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.247
[45] Bunge, ‘Education and the Child in Eighteenth-Century German Pietism: Perspectives from the Work of A. H. Franke’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.254
[46] Bunge, ‘Education and the Child in Eighteenth-Century German Pietism: Perspectives from the Work of A. H. Franke’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.278
[47] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.297
[48] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.292
[49] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.298
[50] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.295
[51] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.295
[52] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.296
[53] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.296
[54] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.296
[55] Heitzenrater, ‘John Wesley and Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.298
[56] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.301
[57] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.302
[58] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.303
[59] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.311
[60] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.313
[61] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.313
[62] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.313
[63] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.312
[64] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.318
[65] Brekus, ‘Children of Wrath, Children of Grace: Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Culture of Child Rearing’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.328
[66] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.334
[67] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.334
[68] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.338
[69] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.340
[70] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.348
[71] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.348
[72] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.346
[73] DeVries, ‘“Be Converted and Become as Little Children”: Friedrich Schleiermacher on the Religious Significance of Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.348
[74] Bendroth, ‘Horace Bushnell’s Christian Nurture’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.355
[75] Bendroth, ‘Horace Bushnell’s Christian Nurture’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.355
[76] Bendroth, ‘Horace Bushnell’s Christian Nurture’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.355
[77] Bendroth, ‘Horace Bushnell’s Christian Nurture’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.356
[78] Bendroth, ‘Horace Bushnell’s Christian Nurture’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.359
[79] Bendroth, ‘Horace Bushnell’s Christian Nurture’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.359
[80] Werpehowski, ‘Reading Karl Barth on Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.389
[81] Werpehowski, ‘Reading Karl Barth on Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.392
[82] Werpehowski, ‘Reading Karl Barth on Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.392
[83] Werpehowski, ‘Reading Karl Barth on Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.393
[84] Werpehowski, ‘Reading Karl Barth on Children’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.393
[85] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.421
[86] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.421
[87] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.422
[88] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.423
[89] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.443
[90] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.426
[91] See the title of Hinsdale’s paper, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp.406-445
[92] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.445
[93] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.439
[94] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.438
[95] Hinsdale, ‘“Infinite Openness to the Infinite”: Karl Rahner’s Contribution to Modern Catholic Thought on the Child’, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.434
[96] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.447
[97] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.447
[98] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.448 (italics in original)
[99] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp.472-473
[100] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.452
[101] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.456
[102] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.457
[103] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.459
[104] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.459
[105] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.459
[106] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.459
[107] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), pp.459-460
[108] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.460
[109] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.462
[110] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.462
[111] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.463
[112] Miller-McLemore, ‘“Let the Children Come” Revisited: Contemporary Feminist Theologians on Children, in Bunge, The Child in Christian Thought (2001, Eerdmans), p.464