For women, caught up in a society of exploitive men-which seems to be the historical rule-the psychological problem is different. They need to receive more power, encouragement and autonomy. How is this psychological need met by the fatherhood of God, mediated through Jesus? It is met very simply by receiving the power of God through the Holy Spirit. For example, consider nuns and consecrated women. A woman who has God as her Father, Jesus as her Husband, and the Holy Spirit as her best friend is pretty much of an irresistible force. The history of many great female saints attests both to their womanliness, and to their extraordinary power. They recognized that their power had been lent to them and was not "theirs," thus they remained feminine. We need think only of Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Thérèse of Lisieux-and many others that history may not have noted but God has. Indeed, there is nothing equivalent to the great tradition of female saints in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. In no other religious or secular tradition in the world do we find so many examples of women who were both truly holy, truly powerful, and truly women-and honored by men for being all three.

Individual autonomy and sexual identity for both sexes

In a developmental sense, each child, male or female, has two major tasks in front of it. Psychologists refer to one of these tasks as "individuation." This is the process of separating oneself from others, especially from the mother or mother-figure. For a variety of reasons, male children find this task easier than female children. In part, it is because both the mother and baby boy recognize the boy as different, and therefore separation and autonomy come more easily to the boy. A contributing factor is that male children are relatively less interested in people and in relationships, and more interested in objects and spatial exploration than female children (e.g., see Moir and Jessel, 1991). As a result psychologists generally agree that autonomy and independence come more easily to boys than girls.

For the daughter, who is similar to the mother and closely tied to her, individuation can often be a problem (e.g., Chodorow, 1990). One of the important natural functions of the father is to help his daughter separate from the mother; to help the daughter form her own identity, and to keep her from remaining "merged" with her mother.

The other major task for both sexes is the development of sexual or gender identity. This task is reliably understood by psychologists as more difficult for males than females. Males may separate from their mother fairly easily, and recognize the mother as "not-me," but that does not tell them who they are as males. They must find this male identity elsewhere-through their father or other father-figures who are often unreliable or unavailable, and in any case are usually not around much in the first few years of the child's life.

However, from the beginning, and apparently in all societies, little girls see in their mother the meaning of womanhood every day in very concrete ways, and understand this as basic to their identity. They have an adult woman close by to model the meaning of femaleness for them. What fathers do qua fathers is far less obvious.

God the Father, however, gives men a model with which to identify, even if their own fathers have been inadequate. Thus, the model of God the Father is a fundamental psychological support for this essential masculine need. It seems to me bizarre to the point of pathology at this time in our culture to be trying to remove God the Father from our theology. We are just now aware of the widespread social pathology, especially the increase in violence, resulting from fatherlessness in families-and the data are staggering! (See Blankenhorn, 1995, Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem.) What worse moment could there be to diminish fatherhood in our theology? We have enough absent fathers without trying to send God the Father away too! To remove God the Father is to remove a major support for positive male identity. In a church that is already far more popular with women than with men, this means the removal of one of the few remaining supports for men.

Relevant to this point is the current situation in the world of religion. Those religions and denominations that have been most affected by modernism and feminism are those which are visibly in decline. Liberal Protestant denominations and Reform Judaism are good examples of this phenomenon. In contrast, evangelical and fundamentalist Protestantism, with their energetic male leadership and their traditional theology, have been growing substantially and continue to do so. In Judaism, the very masculine Orthodox and Hasidic groups are growing with almost explosive vigor. In Roman Catholicism, those orders which have been most affected by modernism and feminism are those with the smallest number of novices and the highest average age. In contrast, the orders and groups that are doing well are orthodox and clearly endorse the traditional Christian understanding of sexuality. Here are such orders or groups as the Legionaries of Christ and the Missionaries of Charity, Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation, etc.

Finally, the religion of Islam is probably the most rapidly growing religion in the world today. And it is not just growing in Third World countries. In the United States, it is growing through immigration and in the Black community, due to the conversions of large numbers of black men. Recently I heard a report that Black Baptist women were urging their husbands to become Muslim because they thought their men should have a religion and thought Christianity to be inadequate for men. The African American community has suffered greatly from fatherless families, and many Blacks who have become Muslims openly claim that Islam restored their manhood to them.

In my own judgment, the American Black community has been an early warning system for the rest of our society. The African Americans were the first to feel the scourge of drugs, but a decade or so later whites caught up; the same is true with regard to family-breakdown and illegitimacy. The African American illegitimacy rate is leveling off at a high level, and the white rate is just beginning to accelerate. Sociologists are predicting that the result will be the development of a white under-class in American society. This under-class will also be a "fatherless society." In short, the potential for the growth of Islam among white male Americans should be taken very seriously. They too will need to regain their manhood. After all, God gave men their manhood, just as he gave womanhood to women. Christianity must recognize that manhood is a gift from God and that it must be honored as such-by the Church, not just by the National Football League.

What about female psychology, in a unisex society? We have already looked at how feminine autonomy and power are enhanced through a relationship with their father or spiritually with God as Father. Now we turn to the problem of the psychology of female sexual identity and God the Father. In general, as already mentioned, women have an easier task at forming their sexual identity.

But how does the fatherhood of God enhance feminine identity? I propose that it is analogous to the way in which, through love and support, a good father enhances the sexual identity of his own daughters. A good deal of research has shown that girls raised without fathers tend to be less sure of their lovability and femininity. As a result, they are more vulnerable to pathologies ranging from depression to promiscuity. Here let me expand somewhat on what I see as a special feminine capacity for the spiritual life.

From the time they are born, little girls are much more responsive to people than little boys. Girls respond earlier and more strongly to the human face and the human voice. They smile sooner. As noted, boys are much more responsive to objects-apparently primarily to objects that move or make noise. We have all noticed that the great majority of girls are more likely to play interpersonal games, often of a cooperative nature, and girls' playing with dolls exists in every culture. Boys are much more drawn to competitive games where there are winners and losers, rules to argue about, and to playing with things like balls, sticks, and trucks, etc. Women are not only more sensitive emotionally-which means to interpersonal messages-they are more sensitive to different degrees of temperature, to different kinds of touch, to different tones of voice, different odors, and the like. (For a good summary of the many differences between men and woman now known to be rooted in biology and brain differences, see Moir and Jessel, 1991.)

Not only interpersonal relations but that kind of relationship described as "intimate" is something on which many women place great value. In short, it is in concrete interpersonal relationships and intimacy that the majority of women seem to find their greatest rewards.

Since God made women that way, since he finds it "good," there is every reason to believe that he would honor this need. That is, that God would honor women's special needs and abilities to have deep and intimate interpersonal relationships. Perhaps this is what is meant when Jesus told Martha that Mary had the better part; perhaps this is much of what is meant by the "contemplative life." In any case, the lives of the female saints have been filled with language describing the intensity of the personal relationship with Jesus and with God. It is as though the capacity of women for spiritually intense relationships is rooted in their capacity for many and intense relationships in the natural world. I do not wish to imply that the relationship of Christian men to God the Father is less rich, but themes of union, themes of love and intimacy seem to me to be much more typical of the female saints. And it seems to me that this is a good way to explain the great number of impressive Christian women throughout history. That is, women find something emotionally extraordinarily satisfying about their relationship with God, as Father, or as Son, or as Holy Spirit. And as far as a woman's identity goes, how can she doubt her femininity, her womanhood, if it is acknowledged and honored directly through the love of God, her Father.

Yes, but what about the psychology of all those feminists? If things are this fine, why all the tremendous criticism? This question raises the issue of the special psychology of the radical feminists. First, it is important to note that such feminists represent a clear minority of women, although they are common in academic and religious settings.

Second, a significant number of feminists are responding to their experience of abuse or lack of respect from men. Psychological recovery from these experiences and associated emotions requires the sympathetic and positive support of men. Spiritual resources available in Christianity include the Virgin Mary and Jesus who can serve as spiritual models of holiness, and in time lead the woman to God the Father. As tradition has long held, Mary leads such women to Jesus, who can then lead them to a glorious affirmation of their womanhood by God the Father. In short, for women with a solid feminine identity but negative associations with men, especially fathers, there are available answers. In any case, such women often have little desire for God as mother-they are just fearful and distrustful of God as father.