Proclaiming and cultivating ‘childlikeness’: a subversive thread in Christian anthropology

Abstract

If contemporary public discourse struggles with truncated notions of what it means to be human, nowhere is this more obvious than in our discussion and treatment of children. By and large, in our public discourse, we treat children as ‘little adults’ – as consumers, objects of beauty and fashion, career aspirants and sometimes even as sexual beings. By contrast, Jesus put children – as children – at the centre of his project in proclaiming the kingdom of God. He preserved a special place for children in his ministry, and in all three synoptics, he called his followers to ‘childlikeness’. This paper examines a subversive thread in historic theological anthropology. The nature of ‘childlikeness’ is explored and possible ways to cultivate childlikeness for adults are discussed. The notion of childlikeness has been rediscovered in recent times by the ‘Child Theology Movement’, but, in this paper, I wish to examine three linked authors who wrote on ‘childlikeness’ in the 19th and 20th centuries, predating the Child Theology Movement by some decades: George MacDonald, Baron Friedrich von Hügel and Gwendolen Greene.

Keywords:

• Childlikeness
• Friedrich von Hügel
• George MacDonald
• Gwendolen Greene

Notes

1. Mark 7:24–30.; Matthew 17:14–20; Mark 9:17–29; Luke 9:37–43. All Biblical references in the NIV version, unless specified.

2. Matt 17:14–20; Mark 9:17–29; Luke 9:37–43; Matt 9:18–26; Mark 9:18–26; Luke 8:40–56.

3. He goes as far as arguing, ‘a child’ is ‘the visible likeness of the Lord himself …’ (MacDonald, ‘The Child in the Midst’, 11, 12).

4. Holland, ed., Selected Letters, 222. In 1889, von Hügel wrote, regarding Grou, that ‘the greatest and most difficult of all requirements is the practical combination of great intellectual openness and activity with a child-like spirit of faith, simplicity and love.’ (Friedrich von Von Hügel 1889, 991). Leonard argues that von Hügel’s ability ‘to combine these characteristics lies at the heart of his spirituality’ and his ability ‘to empower others’ (Leonard 1994, 271).

5. Willmer and White go beyond this arguing that the child invites believers ‘into the way of the cross’ (Willmer and White 2013, 16). Though this link between child and cross is not explicit, they view it as essential to following Christ in his path to the cross in a ‘strange, unsuspected way’ (Willmer & White 2013, 209).

6. Willmer and White remind us of the humble status of children in Jesus’ day and of how following the ‘clue of the child’ as ‘the stuff of the kingdom,’ can liberate us from our ‘quest for greatness’ and ‘selfish ambition’ (Willmer and White 2013, 127, 71). Berryman reminds us that the silent child ‘revealed God’s presence’ and taught by ‘presence’ not by words (Berryman 2017, 80, 107).

7. Gwendolen Greene was the daughter of the British composer, Sir Hubert Parry.

8. For a discussion of this concept read Wrigley-Carr 2016, 155–166.