PARENT’S RESPONSIBILITIES REGARDING RELIGIOUS NURTURE OF CHILDREN IN THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS

Parents’ responsibility is an important concept that we can find in both human-made laws and divine laws. By taking into account the Abrahamic religions’ (i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam) Holy Writings, parents take up these responsibilities, such as protecting them and catering to their basic needs, nurturing a child’s religious life by using different methods and becoming good examples. Thereby, in order to preserve the integrity of the child, while continuing to serve as a guide, the spiritual aspects must be preserved and developed in the same way. However, the three Abrahamic religions have their own perspective on family, and mother-father roles in a child’s religious nurture at home. In this paper which is a comparative study, it hasbeen tried to explain the parents’ responsibilities regarding shaping their children innate religious instincts based on the Holy Writings of Abrahamic religions. The paper which is conducted with the literature review methods, is formed of introduction and two parts. The first part describes the parents’ responsibility related to meeting their children physical needs, while the second part focuses on parents’ responsibilities in the spiritual life of children. In the end and, it is discussed the common grounds and discrepancies between the Abrahamic religions’ views on parent’s responsibilities. Despite the discrepancies and competition between the Abrahamic religions, the most important point of this common ground is that parents have been taken in charge by God as a reflection and placement of divine reality in their children’s lives. This task consists of nurturing the belief of their children, and gaining knowledge and skills that will help them to live according to God’s warnings and instructions in all phases of their lives, whatever education style parents choose.