CONCRETIZATION OF THE IDEA OF LOVE IN THEOLOGICAL MESSAGES AND PARENTAL BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Based on empirical researches of parental behavior in the process of socialization and also on Rohner’s parental acceptance-rejection theory, this paper raises an issue of love. In parental behavior that is perceived by a child, love is recognized as a motive that makes a child feel accepted. Rejected children accumulate fear and form a negative self-image. The family mediates between the accepted value system of the religious culture to which they belong and new generations in the process of socialization. From the perspective of Christianity ideal concepts of God and love are seen as synonyms. Experiences with parents and significant persons during the early childhood are related to the theoretical concept of attitude toward authority and its power. On a theoretical level, two ideas about God are intertwined: God who is in his own nature love, who loves, protects, forgives, saves; and/or God who controls, punishes, judges, and destroys. In this way love and fear meet in a religious experience, concretize in a religious ritual practice and live in everyday life of a family through parental behavior in the process of socialization.