What is the lost innocence of the boy throughout the book?

The boy in the Road is surprisingly mature. I'm not sure if this is because he never had a childhood, we are not privy to his life before the world is plunged into hell, or he has already experienced so much heartache. There is an innocence about him but it is so mixed with goodness that it is difficult to tell exactly how he is affected by all the horror that he sees. The Boy constantly thinks of others. He empathizes for the people on the road less fortunate than him. He thanks the people, long dead, whose house he stays in. The boy inspires his father to see a shred of decency in a world that deserves no salvation. There is a divinity about the boy that seems to buffer his goodness or innocence against what he sees. McCarthy often describes The Boy using religious imagery and language. At one point the boy is described as a "golden chalice, good house to a god". I'm not sure how literally McCarthy wanted us to take this but the boy seems to be immune to his loss of goodness or innocence, the two seem to be the same with this character. I suppose if there is hope in this very bleak, but beautiful story, it is in the boy.