Response to Wall

John Wall's review argues correctly that the academy pays too much attention to the needs and desires of adults, often at the expense of the welfare of children; he is also right to point out that evangelical Protestant efforts to focus on the family are overly therapeutic and privatistic. But his ethical agenda for fatherhood is neither the most sociologically wise nor the most theologically sound path to the renewal of Christian fatherhood. Specifically, Wall is insufficiently attentive to the enduring challenge that the "male problematic" poses to the integration of fathers into families.