Reading about women’s experiences with patriarchy (May), I am reminded of a book by Spanish theologian José Antonio Pagola, who cites Jesus saying in Mark 10:29-30 that “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age — houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions — and in the age to come eternal life” — but he doesn’t promise fathers. “Patriarchal relationships do not exist in God’s kingdom,” Pagola says. “Men lose their power; women gain their dignity. To accept the reign of the Father means making space for life together, without male domination. . . . Jesus calls [God] ­‘Father’ not to legitimize earthly structures but precisely to prevent any of his people from trying to claim paternal authority, which is reserved for God alone.”

Charles Geiser, Elkhart, Ind.