I'm interested in a theology and history of how god parents work. Do any of you know of any good resources on this? A bit of background - I'm examining for my dissertation the Scottish Named Person scheme which has the Government assign every child a named person (a government employee)to watch out for each child's wellbeing . Many believe such a policy undermines parental responsibility and I am wondering if the traditional Christian practice of godparents may provide an alternative which gives support for parents while not undermining their rights.
Try Anthony Sparrow's commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, section on Baptism. Search for 'godfather': http://www.anglican.net/works/anthony-sparrow-a-rationale-upon-the-book-of-common-prayer-1684/#p19
Thanks Stalwart, that's helpful. I was reading somewhere which seemed to suggest that godparents were often originally the biological parents as well. Do you know if this is true? Also out of interest, in Anglican churches today is the godparents who still take the baptismal vows in the infants name or do the parents tend to do this?
Infant baptism relies on the child having a Christian upbringing. This is ordinarily the parents responsibility. When the church was experiencing persecution, tit was godparents, or sponsors, who would fill that role if the parents were killed. Today it is a way of insuring that the child will have someone to teach them the fundamentals of the faith.