Christian philosophy of childhood in the context of late antique culture. Review of the monograph: Horn C. B., Martens J. W. "Let the little children come to me": childhood and children in early Christianity. Wasftington, D. C.: The Catatonic University of America Press, 2009. XV + 438 pp

This article is a response to the scholarly monograph by Cornelia B. Horn and John W. Martens, Let the Children Come to Me: Childhood and Children in Early Christianity, published in 2009. As a response to the increasing contemporary criticism of the Christian religion by atheists and Neo-pagans, who assert that Christianity did not enrich ancient culture in any way, but only contributed to its destruction, it is shown that it was Christianity that initiated radical changes in attitudes towards children in late antique society. The main attention is paid to the poorly studied problem of a child’s perception of Christian theology and church consciousness in the first six centuries A. D. The works and sermons on this topic of the fathers of the “golden age” of Christianity, especially the Cappadocians, are considered as an attempt to combine education in the spirit of ancient Kalokagatia and evangelical virtues. The main conclusion of the study can be the thesis that based on the idea that all people, including children, are created in the image and likeness of God and are children of God, Christianity for the first time perceives a child as a person.