Childhood as continuity and newness: generational succession understood according to the theological logic of the gift

Abstract

This article seeks to understand, in a speculative way, the relationship between a new generation and the one preceding it. After having identified two opposite extremes – the ‘continuity thesis’ and the ‘discontinuity thesis’ – the article appropriates the logic of gift exchange to map out a mediating position. The fact that the practice of gift exchange is susceptible to criticism is subsequently noted, and two major lines of philosophical criticism are considered and related to the continuity thesis and the discontinuity thesis, respectively. The article then makes use of the work done by John Milbank to show that a purified notion of gift exchange is possibly from the vantage point of Christian theology, and finally seeks to apply this notion to the relationship between generations.