The contemporary discourse grapples with the perceived absence or eclipse of the paternal figure. Consequently, Pope Francis urgently appeals, "Our world today needs fathers." This dissertation, therefore, endeavors to scrutinize discourses concerning...
The contemporary discourse grapples with the perceived absence or eclipse of the paternal figure. Consequently, Pope Francis urgently appeals, "Our world today needs fathers." This dissertation, therefore, endeavors to scrutinize discourses concerning the existence and actions of fatherhood from the lenses of cultural anthropology and psychoanalysis, with the aim of critiquing and synthesizing these perspectives through the framework of the Theology of the Body.
Within patriarchal societal structures, the father traditionally assumes a pivotal role in selecting members of society, the genesis and preservation of culture, and its intergenerational transmission. However, the exertion of this role through authoritarian modalities of domination and control often manifests as violence, a legacy frequently bequeathed to subsequent generations. Nevertheless, this archetype of the patriarchal father is increasingly being repudiated, giving rise to the conceptualization of novel paternal identities, such as the 'nurturing father' or the 'friend-like father.'
Psychoanalysis delineates the father-child dyad as characterized by confrontation and conflict, delving into the paradoxical nexus between the Oedipal desire for patricide or the demise of the father and the subsequent formation of the superego. However, this theoretical stance ultimately promulgates a discourse of submission to a potent paternal authority.
Drawing upon the hermeneutics of the gift, John Paul II's Theology of the Body offers an alternative perspective that elucidates the being and actions of the father. It posits that the father-child relationship transcends a binary of domination-subjection or confrontation-conflict, evolving instead into a dynamic that fosters personal maturation and interpersonal communion through the agency of love as reciprocal selfgiving, operating under the guiding principle of gratuitous giving. The realization of this relational paradigm hinges upon the recognition that the father's identity an embodied being as the sacrament of the person, a masculine, a husband, and a son― fundamentally originates in his 'sonship' in relation to God the Father.
Pope Francis, through his apostolic letter Patris Corde, presents Saint Joseph as an exemplary model of fatherhood. This powerfully underscores that the scholarly consideration of the father's existence and actions, predicated upon a foundational sonship vis-à-vis God the Father, transcends mere theoretical abstraction and possesses the potential for concrete realization as a lived reality.
The existence and actions of the father undergo a gradual process of perfection along a life trajectory that mirrors the being and actions of God the Father, as revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ. Through such a father, God the Father's divine ordinance, the lex caritatis, is transmitted, and a culture permeated by the Caritas is progressively constructed.
Consequently, the inquiry into fatherhood cannot be circumscribed to a mere examination of paternal roles; it necessitates a profound interrogation of God and the humanum. This, precisely, constitutes the moral significance inherent in fatherhood.