The Centrality of Faith in Fathers' Role Construction: The Faithful Father and the Axis Mundi Paradigm

This qualitative study, through a series of structured, open-ended interviews with four religious fathers, examines the relationship between centrality of faith and fathering role construction. The data is viewed in the context of Mircea Eliade's (19S9) Axis Mundi paradigm. Using grounded theory analysis, the study finds these men have three major interdependent ideals in their fathering roles: the perfect love of God, generativity of faith, and the spiritual authority of the servant. These ideals are defined by the meaning-generating Axis Mundi, the fixed point by which all other points are defined. The data support the concept that a religious person will attempt to conform behavior and attitudes to the values prescribed by the Axis Mundi. Because faith is the central, defining attribute of these men's identities, it serves as the standard by which all roles and behaviors are evaluated. The view facilitates objectivity in the discussion of faith and has implications for further examination of a wide variety of faiths and their corresponding moral systems. This study's findings have applications for intervention programs including, but not limited to, those dealing with father involvement.