We express the mystery of God with
diverse metaphors, but mostly in Adult terms. In this experimental
theological adventure, Graham Adams imagines what might flow from a more
thorough ‘be-child-ing’ of God. Aware that the Child can be idealized,
he selects particular characteristics of childness in order to disrupt
God’s omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience.
The smallness
of the Child re-envisages divine location in sites of smallness, like
an open palm receiving the experiences of the overlooked. The weakness
of the Child reimagines divine agency as chaos-event, subverting
prevailing patterns of power and evoking relationships of mutuality. And
the curiosity of the Child reconceives divine encounter as horizon-seeker, imaginatively and empathetically pursuing the unknown.
These
possibilities are brought into dialogue both with other theologies
(Black, disabled and queer) and with pastoral loss, economic/ecological
injustice, and theological education. Through these conversations, God
the Child emerges not only as a new model for God, but intrinsic to
God’s new social reality which is close at hand.