Fathercare: What It Means to Be God's Child

by Charles Paul Conn

1983 " What It Means to Be God's Child" by Charles Paul Conn

113 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1983

About the author

Charles Paul Conn acquired his undergraduate degree in religion from Lee University (then Lee College). He received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in psychology from Emory University and subsequently went on to spend three years at Harvard University as a postdoctoral Visiting Scholar. Conn served on the Lee College psychology faculty for 15 or so years before becoming the president of Lee University in 1986. In addition to his work at Lee University, Conn also has a second career as a free-lance writer. He has authored or co-authored 20 popular books and his magazine articles have appeared in numerous national publications as varied as Saturday Evening Post, Eternity, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology. An interview with Johnny Cash, written for a Tennessee newspaper in 1972, was named by the Associated Press as the Best News Feature of the Year.

Reviews

[Anna Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Conn was my psychology professor the fall semester of my sophomore year. One day, at the beginning of class, the grad student teaching assistant dragged a large cardboard box into the lecture hall and began pulling out stacks of this little book and passing it out to my classmates and I. I remember watching as the grad student made his way to me and how, what was soon to be my copy of the book, was stuck to the copy below it. The grad student commented that it was a bit sticky as he peeled the two books apart before handing me mine. I remember being initially put off by the older, sticky, book that had clearly been sitting in a storage closet of some sort for God only knows how long prior to being gifted to me. I flipped it over and was amused to see a picture of my professor, who is also the chancellor of my university mind you, taken at least 30 years ago. It turns out his mustache used to be a very prominent feature and his hair hadn't always been streaked with gray. Then I turned the book back over and read the title. I'm sure most of my classmates were less than enthralled, but it struck a nerve with me. I have a complicated relationship with my earthly father and the "word picture," as Conn calls it, of God as Father has always been hard for me, painful even. Instead of learning about the nature of God through my knowledge of what a father is and does, I learned about the nature of fathers through learning about God, and then applying that to what the role of a father should be. In other words, I did it backwards. All that to say, the concept of the book intrigued me because, though the idea of God as Father is not all that theologically complex, it is tender for me. I set the little book on my nightstand and began reading it over Christmas break, though, in typical Anna fashion, it took me into the summer before finishing it. I'm glad I gave this little book a chance. It's an easy read. It's insightful. It's touching, and I learned a lot. I cried as I started the book, and I cried as I finished the book, not because it's sad, or even emotional, but because it reminded me of the tenderness of my heart and the overwhelming love God has for me. The fatherly love of Christ is a really beautiful way of analyzing the complex relationship between us and God. It's so personal, so full of unconditional love, and there is so much to learn about God and ourselves through it.

[Victor]

The title says it all