ABSTRACT
Thinking the scientist has missed the mark and that there must be some deeper meaning to the story, the theologian looks to the book of wisdom that she reveres as the word of God and finds the idea of discipline and spiritual growth in a passage about sparing the rod and spoiling the child. Obviously, the theologian challenges, this story is a parable and means that the mother disciplines the cubs until they conform to the image that she has picked out for them as bear cubs.
