Biblical Perspective

To consider fatherhood is to consider God because He is the greatest revelation of what it means to be a father. Karl Barth, in his deliberations on fatherhood, pointed out that it is only as God is revealed as father that there is an understanding of what human fatherhood must look like (as cited in Thompson, 2000, p. 37). In every facet of society, it can be seen that any deviation from the norms that God intended for His people, results in the creation of problems that God did not intend for them to deal with. Talbot (2008) postulated that, as with other problems man now faces, the root cause of paternal absenteeism must be sin (p. 22). This does not mean that fathers do not have the right to choose how they respond to their children. It does not imply that fathers will necessarily neglect their responsibilities. However, if there was no sin in the world, then all fathers would be perfect as long as they continued to choose the way of God.

It is here that one must understand that the definition of fatherhood must come from the One who is the source of this outstanding feature of masculinity – God Himself. While the postulation by Barth is worthy of consideration, the role of one’s earthly father should not be overlooked or downplayed because the father is often the first male to whom the child is introduced. It must also be noted that the prevalence of paternal absenteeism in any given home does not necessitate that the children remain captive to the pain inflicted upon them. On the contrary, they can experience healing and wholeness through the love of their Heavenly Father (Dolphin & Sacarelos, 1994). However, it cannot be denied that women often find it difficult to relate to God because of the false sense of security and other problems incurred as a result of the absence of their earthly father (Moore, 2010, p. 17).

Throughout Scripture, several inferences made to fatherhood revealed that fathers are important to God. The objective of this section of this study is to outline the elements of fatherhood as shown in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. It will also seek to briefly examine whether paternal absenteeism has an impact on the way a daughter responds to her Heavenly Father.