Father God

Pagans called Zeus “Father,” but, according to Joseph Ratzinger (The God of Jesus Christ), “they meant that Zeus was like human fathers—sometimes really nice, when he was in a good mood, but ultimately an egotist, a tyrant, unpredictable, unfathomable, and dangerous. And this was how they experienced the dark power that ruled the world. . . . The ‘Father’ of the world, as he is experienced in human life, reflects human fathers: partisan and, in the last analysis, terrible” (32).

Some want to give up on fatherhood entirely, seeing Christian confession of a divine “Father” as a leftover of this terrifying patriarchy. They want brotherhood instead. Which prompts Ratzinger to ask: “in our de facto experience, is brotherhood really so unambiguous, so full of hope?” Can you say Cain? Romulus?

Besides, this conception of Christian Fatherhood misses the point. God our Father isn’t trigger-happy, volatile Zeus. And how can we know? “It was necessary that God should show himself, overthrow the images, and set up a new criterion. This takes place in the Son, in Christ” (33). Jesus enables us to see what “Father” truly is, and in Jesus we can see that “the biblical Father is not a heavenly duplicate of human fatherhood. Rather, he posit something new: he is the divine critique of human fatherhood” (33).