Karl Rahner’s ‘Ideas for a Theology of Childhood’ has become increasingly influential in childhood studies. In this article I critically assess Rahner’s ideas in this seminal work to highlight the answer Rahner proposes to the question of the meaning and task of childhood. This is brought into brief conversation with writings of Jürgen Moltmann and Jerome Berryman. Rahner’s ideas of childhood can be critiqued for a lack of careful engagement with the details of Scripture and concrete life settings, and for underestimating the effects of childhood trauma. One can also ask whether transcendental philosophy provides an accessible language, particularly in an interdisciplinary context. Nevertheless, ‘mystery of the child’ language is now near-ubiquitous in contemporary Christian authors on childhood. Rahner’s insights into childhood can function like the reality of childhood itself, remaining as a life-giving root in a theology that unfolds as others take it further.

卡尔·拉纳（Karl Rahner）的“儿童神学思想”在儿童研究中越来越有影响力。在本文中，我将严格评估拉纳在这项开创性工作中的想法，以突出拉纳对童年的意义和任务问题提出的答案。与JürgenMoltmann和Jerome Berryman的著作进行了简短的交谈。由于缺乏对圣经细节和具体生活背景的认真投入，以及对儿童创伤的影响的低估，Rahner的童年思想可能会受到批评。人们还可以问，先验哲学是否提供一种可访问的语言，尤其是在跨学科的情况下。然而，“儿童之谜”的语言在当代基督教童年时代的作家中几乎无处不在。