1. 童年神学的看法 Ideasfor aTheology of Childhood

2. 花～果 童年奇特与绝妙的花朵 在它们内已经是果实 它们不只是后之而来的果实的证明 The strange and wonderful flowers of childhood are already fruits in themselves, and do not merely rely for their justification on the fruit that is to come afterwards.

3. 童年～成年 童年的恩赐不只是 成年恩赐的一个保证 The grace of childhood is not merely the pledge ofthe grace of adulthood.

4. 童年的价值 在它独特的性质之中，不朽与永恒的价值连接到童年，即使在那些有异于生命里更广泛阶段的点上 The values of imperishability and eternity are attached to childhood in its unique properties even in those points in which it differs from life in its broader phases.

5. 内在正确性 事实上，童年对后来生命阶段的贡献，不是它本身内在正确性的唯一标准 The fact that it contributes to the later stages of life is not the sole criterion of its own intrinsic rightness.

6. 童年必须在它自己内有价值，这价值将在那快跟我们相遇的不可言喻的未来重新被发现 It must be the case that childhood is valuable in itself, that it is to be discovered anew in the ineffable future which is coming to meet us. 童年～将来

7. 奥秘 童年是 在最终分析时 一个奥秘 Childhood is, in the last analysis, a mystery

8. 两个“开始” 这奥秘有一个“开始”的力量 就是向那天主的“绝对开始”开放 祂是完全的奥秘 。。。 This mystery has the force of a beginning which is open to the absolute beginning of God who is utter mystery …

9. 神的爱 是不可言喻和永恒的、无名的 和正是因为这样，以天主的身份接受这种在神的本性里面的爱，身为天主的，祂主持万物 。。。 the ineffable and eternal, nameless and precisely as such accepted with love in the divine nature as God who presides over all things …

10. 始 在我们生命的开始，我们实在不知道童年是什么意思 We do not really know what childhood means at the beginning of our lives

11. 终 直至我们生命的终点来临，我们才知道这童年是什么意思 Until we know what that childhood means which comes at the end of them.

12. 天国 以天主赋予的悔改与皈依 我们领受天国 因为，除了天主以外，没有人可以复活我这个“死我” By God-given repentance and conversion, we receive the kingdom/reign of God.Because, no one can resurrect my “dead self” except God.

13. 儿童 所以成为儿童 （谷10：15） 因为耶稣已把自己放在弱小者当中 And so become children (Mark 10:15) Because Jesus had located himself among the weak.

14. 八十定三岁？ 正是在这个意义上，我们才能够从孩子的将来，辨别出儿童生命的开始 It is in this sense that we only recognize the child at the beginning of life from the child of the future.

15. 反映 这儿童是“可以言喻”的 但是，在天主的“不可言喻”中找到源头 我们也可以说：童年反映主爱 The child is “effable” but finds his/her origin in God’s ineffability. Or we can say, childhood mirrors God’s love.

16. 控制 这孩子要努力抵制由成年人来控制 The child is to resist efforts by adults to control.

17. 名字 这孩子时常在永恒的门槛而存在 因此，为孩子取名字是有重大意义的 因为这孩子是被主爱所接纳 The child exists always at the threshold of the eternal, thus, the naming of the child is significant because the child is accepted into God’s love.

18. 接纳 天主在祂的天主性内 常常以爱外展去接纳受造物，但是。。。 God in God’s divine nature always reaches out to accept creatures in love, but …

19. 拒绝 这孩子也许经常否认、漠视、或甚至拒绝天主的爱，还有，当它被反映在父母和其他人的脸、手臂、和行为上 The child may often deny, ignore, or even repudiate the love of God, also when it is reflected in the faces, arms, and acts of parents and others.

20. 爱的痊愈 爱的痊愈，无论如何，可以经常开始 当这小孩被允许和鼓励对那“永恒”保持开放 因此，他/她有能力接受神爱的标记 这也就是婴儿领洗的价值 Recovery of love, however, always can begin when that little child is allowed and encouraged to remain open to the eternal and thus is able to receive signs of divine love. This is the value of infant baptism.

21. 纵然 纵然这小孩诞生在一个不测、风险、意外和随机发生事情的世界。。。 Though the child is born into a world of accident, chance, contingency, and random happenings …

22. 解决 她 /他最后将在对那位“主持万物者” 的开放之中解决它 s/he will finally address it in openness to the one “who presides over all things.”

23. 独立～依靠 这孩子是一个独立 而同时是一个依靠 的存在 The child is an independent and a dependent being.

24. 基础 原本童年是永远保存在我们心中 童年是成年的基础，这是“童真成年” Original childhood is preserved in our hearts forever. Childhood is the foundation of adulthood. This is “childlike adulthood.”

25. 生命状态 因此，为我们来说，生命是我们的原本童年永远被保存着的一个状态。。。 Thus, life becomes for us a state in which our original childhood is preserved for ever …

26. 期盼 在这个状态，我们开放 去期盼那意想不到的 去向那不可估量的委身 A state in which we are open to expect the unexpected , to commit ourselves to the incalculable …

27. 力量 一个以力量资助我们仍然能够去发挥的状态 这个状态使我们认识到，主持我们存在的种种能力 比我们自己的计划伟大 从而顺从它们的指挥，作为我们最深的好处 A state which endows us with the power still to be able to play, to recognize that the powers presiding over our existence are greater than our own designs, and to submit to their control as our deepest good.

28. 童年成熟 在生物的意思里，属于孩子的这个童年，只是另外一个童年的开始、前奏、预尝和许诺，这童年将临在于这个成熟的人身上 The childhood which belongs to the child in the biological sense is only the beginning, the prelude, the foretaste, and the promise of this other childhood, which is present in the mature person.

29. 另一个童年 也许我们能够这样说，每人一定要去培养另一个“神圣童年” （参若1：12） Or we can say, there is another “divine childhood” that a person has to nurture (cf. John 1:12).

30. 无限童年 童年是一种开放 人类童年是无限的开放 Childhood is openness. Human childhood is infinite openness.

31. 成熟童年 成年人的成熟童年，就是我们勇敢和信任地维持一个在所有情况之下，都无限开放的一个态度，还有，不去管生命里种种看起来邀请我们去封闭自己的经验 – 这是人类的宗教存在 The mature childhood of the adult is the attitude in which we bravely and trustfully maintain an infinite openness in all circumstances and despite the experiences of life which seem to invite us to close ourselves – this is humans’ religious existence.

32. 天与人 人类的“人的特质”，因此，可以被“了解”为天主的动态生命：圣三的完美合一 Human personhood, thus, can be “understood” as the dynamic life of God: the Trinity in perfect unity.

33. 天主童年 童年，当它被视为在天主童年的基础上奠基，才能够被真正理解、才具体表现出它自己本性的终极深度 Childhood is only truly understood, only realizes the ultimate depths of its own nature, when it is seen as based upon the foundation of childhood of God.

34. 两个童年？ 人类童年与天主童年之间的真正联系 需要我们对那超越行动的无限深度和能力委身自己 它是潜藏在人类的童年之中 The real connection between human childhood and childhood of God requires us to commit ourselves to the infinite depths and power of that transcendental movement which is latent in human childhood itself.

35. 童真～成年 那末，我们孕育出一个童真的童年 我们的童真/童年跟我们一起进入我们的 永恒。。。 Then, we nurture a childlike adulthood. Our childlikeness/childhood goes with us into our eternity …

36. 永恒的童年 我们只成为我们从前的儿童 因为我们把时间收集起来 – 还有也在我们这个童年 – 进入我们的永恒 。。。 We only become the children whom we were because we gather up time – and in this our childhood too – into our eternity …

37. 参考 Rahner, Karl. “Ideas for a Theology of Childhood.” In Further Theology of the Spiritual Life 2. Trans. David Bourke from ZurTheologie des geistlichenLebens. Einsiedeln, DE: Benziger, 1966, New York: Seabury, 1977, 33-50.

38. 感谢 小天诺(DominikNeumayr) 反映天主真善美的童年。。。

39. 制作 赵必成 天主教华人灵修中心 (The Chinese Catholic Spiritual Center) New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA 2011年1月21日