Talk to the Father- (A Book Review of Father Hunger)

 I have to give this book a special recognition that I call "the book anointing." I've blogged about this before, that sometimes certain books seem to leap off the shelves and call for me to read them. And sometimes certain books resonate with me so deeply, and speak to me "where I'm at" that it's like the book was anointed and appointed for me.

Well, this book, Father Hunger by Douglas Wilson, gets the Book Anointing designation. No sooner had I received it in the mail, than 24 hours later I wound up miraculously having a heart to heart conversation with my own earthly father.

"For some reason, I felt like I should stop over," my Dad said to me, sitting down on a stool at my kitchen counter. We sipped tea and had a real honest talk about our relationship, about what fatherhood is all about, about our family history and our hurts.We needed to have this talk. It cleared the air. It opened the doors of understanding.

That's what will happen when you read this book.(I'm not saying you'll have an unexpected talk with your own Dad, but you may just wind up having a good long talk with your Heavenly Father.)

Now Douglas Wilson get get a little pedantic and a little too moralistic, but I think the reader can handle a little passionate exposition of truth. Some statements you might not agree with. Some statements are boldly proclaimed and you wonder if you have to swallow the conjectured point completely, like "Simply put, masculinity is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility." Hmmmm, I'll have to contemplate that.

Expect to cover a very broad array of topics underneath the concept of what Fatherhood is and deals with: gender roles, the role of the state, Atheism, Education (if you went to boarding school you'll want to read his opinion on that!), the Church,etc. You might sometimes think he's going off track.

But there are some poignant and powerful points he makes that might rock you off your feet. "Fathers are speaking about God the Father constantly" he says, even if what they are saying indirectly leads to an awful depiction of what God the Father is. Hopefully you had a loving human father. Chances are, though, he was a very human father, and therefore you've got some "issues" to deal with.

Chapters 11 and 12 are not for the faint of heart, but boy are they eye opening! There's some very frank discussion of sexuality and gender roles.

At the end of each chapter, he has some great study questions called "Questions to Consider." This book could be a great resource for study groups and it would certainly prompt some vigorous discussion!

I hope you consider reading this book, if for no other reason than that you need to know God as your Father in a better way. We all do. Since earthly fathers are human and botch things up, and human fathers are an indirect representation of the Heavenly Father, this book could shed some light on some "issues" you might have in your theology of the Father.

This book is deep, weighty, controversial, and not at all a light read. But it's impacting and illuminating as well. 

Because everyone is hungry for more of the Father's love, even if they don't realize they are.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.