Concept of God in Western and Eastern Children’s Prayers (American and Iranian)

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Abstract

Prayer is an innate act and does not confine to human beings. Its semantic domain is very broad and in different cultures it has more or less the same meaning. One of these similarities is close and internal connection with God and asking only from him. It has also multiple degrees and goals, from asking God’s favor for solving our problems or curing our disease and …, to ascending us to a level higher than Angels.
In Islamic and Christian tradition Prayer has prominent point and both Holy Quran and Bible put special stress on it. In this way, also children play a good role and with their childlike language say something that is evidence for their relation with an eternal reality, I. e. God. This paper is a comparative study of eastern and western (Iranian and American) children’s prayers according to God’s Actions and Attributions. In a content analysis we will study six important sources that have been written in this line. Our study is presented in 2 parts:
1. Western and eastern Children’s prayers and the Names of God’s Action.
2. Western and eastern Children’s prayers and the Names of God’s Attributions.

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