Abstract

DU TOIT, J.S.. God is: Children's Bibles and Bible storybooks' presentation of religious values. Koers (Online) [online]. 2011, vol.76, n.1, pp.119-135. ISSN 2304-8557.

This article considers children's Bibles and Bible storybooks as vehicles for the transfer of God concepts from one generation to the next - as God is considered central to the portrayal of the confessional attributes of the religious collective. It identifies both the commercial and religious imperatives controlling the prevailing attributes assigned as characteristic of the divine. The presentation of the nature of God is found to align with the commercial target audience for children's Bibles: mothers and female caregivers who purchase the books on behalf of their charges and read and interpret the Bibles to the child. But it also coincides with the preferred attributes associated with a supernatural being by young children. Ultimately, God is found to be consistently portrayed by means of maternal attributes of love, protection and care in contrast to the more ambivalent portrayal of God in the adult biblical text.

Keywords : children's Bibles; God concept; religious translation; religious values.

        · abstract in Afrikaans     · text in English     · English ( pdf )