Stories in the Books of Genesis and Exodus tell of fathers whose sons are 'lost' to them through 'deaths' of various kinds. One is murdered. Another is abandoned. A third is supplanted. A fourth is betrayed. A fifth is taken for sacrifice. A sixth is forgotten about. A seventh is secreted away. Only one of these is lost through physical death; the others 'die' symbolically. But in their different ways all these sons are lost to their fathers, some for a time, some forever. And all of them develop the theme with which the biblical narrative begins: God's first son Adam who, by becoming 'lost' to his Creator, sets in train God's long search for humanity . . . The book culminates with a chapter on Jesus: God's son lost and found.
