教父母是西方基督教中洗礼等圣礼仪式的参与者，并承担着教导受洗者宗教知识和教会理论的职责，以引导和督促他们的基督徒生活。教父母这一角色源于古老的担保思想，脱胎于成人洗礼的慕道制度，而后发展为婴儿洗礼中的担保人。教父母最初的身份仅仅是受洗婴儿的担保人以及宗教生活的指导者，但在此后的历史进程中，教父母逐渐从一种单纯的圣礼参与者，发展为一整套复杂的规范体系，即教父母体系。伴随教亲概念尤其是教亲婚姻禁忌观念的形成和发展，教父母体系日趋完善，并凭借拟亲和共亲两种机制的运行广泛而深刻地影响着人们的生活。教会一直试图加强对教父母体系的控制，使其以一种教会认可的方式运行。然而，这样一种源自宗教的机制，自其诞生之日起就显现出了强劲的世俗性。教父母体系不仅能满足人们的宗教需求，还能够从精神层面转化到世俗物质层面，服务于人们的现实需要。它对人们的社交、家庭、婚姻关系，乃至一个国家或地区的政治和外交事务，都直接或间接地产生着影响。在某种程度上，教父母体系对于许多人来说已不仅仅是有用的，更是不可或缺的。教父母体系之所以如此盛行，既同当时欧洲特殊的社会环境有关，又同教父母体系本身所具有的独特优势分不开。中世纪早期的欧洲是一个充斥着暴力与仇杀，人与人之间极度缺乏信任感的社会，亟需一种社会协作机制来缓解矛盾、重建信任。教亲关系在缔结范围上具有较大的选择空间，在缔结形式上具有神圣的宗教意味，在运行机制上又具有高度的灵活性和广泛的适应性。这些独特优势恰恰与当时的社会需求相吻合，因而铸就了这一机制的成功。同样，随着近代社会大幕的徐徐开启，尤其是宗教改革运动的冲击，教父母体系不可避免地走向衰落，逐渐回复到了原初的宗教范畴。

As participants of baptism and other sacraments in Christianity, godparents undertake the responsibilities of giving the baptized infants religious instruction, leading and urging them to live a Christian life. Godparents originate from the ancient thought of sponsorship, grow out of the catechumenate in adult baptism, and develop into the sponsor in infant baptism eventually. During the early times, godparents merely played a liturgical role as the sponsor and religious instructor of the baptized infants. Then, it gradually evolved into a complicated normative system called the godparent complex. With the formation and development of spiritual kinship, especially the matrimonial impediments, the godparent complex becomes increasingly complicated, which influences people’s life extensively and profoundly through the mechanism of godparenthood and co-parenthood. The church attempts to strengthen the control on godparent complex and makes it function as a church-sanctioned pattern. However, this institution, which derived from religion, shows strong secularism as it appears. Not only does it satisfy the mass’s religious needs, but also converts from spiritual level to material level. The institution serves to people’s realistic needs, and has a significant impact on their social contacts, family ties, marriage relationship, and even the political and foreign affairs of a country or a district. To some extent, godparent complex is not merely useful, but also indispensable to many people.The reason for the popularity of the godparent complex is probably due to the special situations in European societies and the peculiar advantages of the institution itself. The early Medieval Europe was a society filled with violence and revenge and lacked of trust, which desperately required a kind of social cooperative institution to ease tensions and rebuild trust. The spiritual kinship is an institution of high flexibility and great adaptability, which provides a rich field of choices in formation and a sacred religious meaning. These unique advantages precisely accorded with the social environment at that time, and made it successful. Meanwhile, with the transition to the modern society, especially the impact of the Protestant Reformation, godparent complex goes to decline inevitably, and slowly returns back to its original religious scope.