The title on this page was broken for a long time and has been fixed. The book is The Father of the Family: A Christian Perspective by Clayton C. Barbeau. Sophia Institute Press issued this edition in October 2013 at 160 pages, but the book itself is much older; it has been in print in one form or another for over forty years.
Barbeau was born in California in 1930, was a licensed marriage and family therapist, and was the father of eight children. He died in July 2019.
This is a Catholic book
Called to Better is written from a non denominational evangelical position, and we carry Catholic titles without turning every review into a debate. But you should know what you are picking up. Sophia Institute Press is a Catholic publisher and this book is Catholic in its bones, not incidentally.
Specifically, Barbeau frames the father as a high priest of the domestic church. That phrase carries a whole sacramental theology behind it that evangelical readers do not share. There is Marian material. Confession and the sacraments are assumed rather than argued for. None of it is hidden, and none of it is presented as optional.
What is not in dispute is the substance underneath: that a father’s job is spiritual before it is financial, that he is answerable for the souls in his house, and that his marriage is the foundation of the whole thing. An evangelical reader will find plenty to agree with and some vocabulary to translate.
What the book actually says
Barbeau’s central image is the father as co creator with God, and he takes that seriously and unsentimentally. The father is called to imitate Christ’s love, to teach his children, to provide materially and spiritually, and to be a witness in the wider world. He does not treat any of these as automatic. Much of the book is about the gap between the vision and the tired man who comes home at six.
He writes about marriage as much as fatherhood, on the grounds that the children are watching how you treat their mother and are learning more from that than from anything you say. Coming from a marriage and family therapist with eight kids, that section carries weight.
Tone and readability
The prose is dignified and a little formal, which is what happens when a book from the early seventies is reissued rather than rewritten. It is not chatty. At 160 pages it is short, but it is not fast; Barbeau expects you to sit with it.
We could not confirm that this edition contains reflection prompts or family discussion questions, so do not buy it for those. Check the preview if that matters.
Who it is for
Catholic fathers, straightforwardly. Also evangelical readers who are comfortable reading across traditions and want a serious older treatment of fatherhood rather than another contemporary one. If you want a book that maps cleanly onto your own tradition without translation, choose differently.
Bottom line
A weighty, thoroughly Catholic classic on fatherhood that has lasted for a reason. Worth reading with your eyes open about where it comes from.
Find The Father of the Family on Amazon.