Child and Childhood as metaphors of hope

Theology Today, Jan 2000 by Moltmann, Jurgen

"For a child has been born for us," the prophet Isaiah proclaimed to a people "walking in darkness." The destruction of the land, the expulsion from their home, captivity and forced labor in Babylon, and a "deep darkness of God" had befallen the people. In his proclamation of the birth of the messianic child and its reign of peace without end, the prophet gave new hope to a deeply oppressed and depressed people: The yoke of their burden and the rod of their oppressor would be broken. After this end, there would come a new beginning, and this new beginning would be as full of new possibilities as a child just being born. The messianic child became a metaphor of the hope to rise from the ruins. a symbol of life's future over against the powers of origin and over against violent suffering and death inflicted by the mighty.

"The messiah can be born in every child," says a Jewish proverb, and Christians celebrate Christmas as the feast of the birth of the divine redeemer in the baby in the manger. We encounter the all-powerful God in a little, dependent, and helpless child. The creator of heaven and earth divests God-self and becomes lowly in the "Christ child" or the so-called "baby-Jesus." The grand theology of the ancient church called this mystery the -humanization of god" or the "Incarnation of the logos," but it begins very simply, in a manner intelligible to every child, by God becoming a child and in this child's redemptive reign of peace. What a mystery a child is.1 The good news for children marks the entire story of Jesus: "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me," and again: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children for the kingdom of heaven belongs to the children."

This orientation towards the child of promise and peace is not only Jewish and Christian but is familiar to ancient mythology and philosophy as well. Vergil foretells the birth of a world-saving child:

Now the maiden returns. The reign of Saturn returns. Now a new generation descends from the heaven on high. At the birth of the child in whose time the iron age shall cease and a golden age shall inherit the whole earth, smile, 0 chaste Lucina: now your Apollo reigns.... Look at the world nodding beneath the weight of its dome, at the lands, the tracts of the sea, and the fathomless depths of the sky. See how all creation takes joy in the age to come! (Aspice venturo laetantur ut omnia saecula).

Furthermore, we read in the supposedly "dark" Heraclitus (Fragment 52): "The aeon is a playing child, pushing around game pieces on the game board, the royal rule of a child." Behind the becoming and the passing of appearances. the guiding hand of the wise king and the innocently playing child are visible simultaneously: The royal rule of a child. The Divine is not only the ancient, but at the same time the childlike. Nothing is so great that God is not still greater, nothing is so small that God is not still smaller.

We will first discuss the various connections in which we talk about childhood, since there is a difference in how parents or educators speak about the child, how a child speaks about him- or herself, and how adults recall their own childhood. These three ways of speaking of childhood can also be called (1) "pedagogical childhood," (2) "child's childhood," and (3) "future childhood. "2 When we talk about the "child as a metaphor of hope," we can for now only speak of it in the third sense, as "future childhood."

"CHILDHOOD" AS SEEN FROM THREE PERSPECTIVES

The context I am assuming is that of a normal, peaceful, middle-class childhood, in which these three relations coexist. We are not speaking of the broken childhood of the street children in Bucharest, the prostituted children of Bangkok, the child soldiers of Africa or the child workers of India.

(1) From the view of concerned parents and teachers, childhood is an age that is meaningful and good in itself on the one hand; on the other hand, it is a stage that is to be overcome by the child's own development, through training provided by adults and education provided by the society. Finally. parents have to bring up their children, so that they can become something and can be made fit for a life in the world of adults. Both sides have to be appreciated and brought into a certain balance: Parents find joy in the company of their children and want to play with them merely for fun-and not only "educational" games like Scrabble and Monopoly to educate their children. At the same time, parents want to see beyond the childlike presence of their little ones in order to orient and guide them toward future possibilities. Since the beginning of the civil age, belief in progress has influenced how people rear their children: childhood is only a preliminary stage to the true and full humanity of adults. "Well, little man, what are you going to be when you grow up?" Boys have been drilled to control their bodies and exert self-discipline, preferably with toys that involve beating and shooting, while girls have received dolls to train them for their future role as a mother.