Towards a theology of children (Hayden Smith)

Description

In the first part of this paper Rev Hayden Smith shows how children are valuable, not just as adults in the making, but as people. Their dependence and vulnerability, far from being an embarrassment, teach us something about being truly human. In part two, “children in the church”, Smith argues strongly for the inclusion of children in the life of our churches, taking baptism as his focus.

It is critical for the sake of our children that the Christian community takes the time to develop, or perhaps dust off, our theology of children. The contention of this paper, however, is not simply that a theology of children is vital for a healthy gospel-shaped children’s ministry but, rather, that children have a particular and necessary contribution to make to the theology of the whole church – particularly to grown-ups.