Intimate Violence Against Women: Trajectories for Pastoral Care in a New Millennium

This article reviews progress made in the theory and practice of pastoral care and counseling with regard to the issue of intimate violence against women since the 1970’s. It includes a comprehensive survey of sociological, psychological, and pastoral literature, and a summary of research on teaching about domestic violence in mainline Protestant seminaries. Social and theological themes, including gender, power, and social and political context, and the challenges of justice-making are traced historically. The article concludes with new recommendations for churches, pastoral caregivers, counselors, and theologians.     

Breaking the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women's Collaborative Leadership Style as a Model for Theological Education

One of the prevailing notions within American culture is the idea that women are prevalent in leadership positions. The reality, however, is that while women are slightly more than 50% of the population, they are underrepresented in leadership. Fewer than 10% of chief executive officers in theological education are women. Traditional roles in theological education lean in favor of men; however, more women are entering religious-oriented professions. The challenge for theological education is the development of a model that reflects general trends, one that recommends an ability to lead from an others-centered paradigm.     

Violence against Women in Contemporary Ghanaian Society

Abstract

Overcoming violence against women requires critical reflective questioning both by individuals and human societies. At stake are not just questions of whether we respond to situations of violence but more importantly, where, when and how we respond. This paper examines the problem with respect to new dimensions arising from existing interventions on violence against women in the Ghanaian context. It calls for well-planned and sustained strategies to help break the cycle of violence being created.

The paper also calls upon the Church to look within its own resources for strategies that are life transforming to help break the vicious cycle. It notes that the Church is not only well placed to respond appropriately but it has been commissioned and given the requisite tools to do so. The call is therefore for the Church to enlist these foundational resources available to it and to put them to good use as it is demanded by its calling.     

Human rights and mental health among Latin American women in situations of state-sponsored violence. Bibliographic resources

A Task Force of the American Psychological Association Division 35, Psychology of Women, has been collecting resources that address issues of human rights and mental health among Latin American women living in situations of war and/or state-sponsored violence. This work is being conducted primarily by women's groups, progressive organizations, and individual women in these contexts of institutionalized political violence. This paper describes our reflections on themes that emerged from our reading of this work. We discuss the false dichotomy between public and private violence, the silencing of women as an inevitable consequence of state-imposed violence, and the collective efforts of women to resist violence and heal its effects. These themes suggest that extreme violence against women can be most adequately understood and responded to within a psychosocial and cultural framework. We examined three issues that emerge from the material gathered by the Task Force that suggest how some Latin American psychologists and activists have begun to articulate such a framework: (a) exile within and outside of one's country of origin; (b) torture, the most extreme form of state-sponsored violence; and (c) nontraditional, culturally appropriate interventions that are alternatives to Anglo-Saxon theory and practice. The work of Latin American individuals is described here as a resource for all who are engaged in the struggle to achieve justice for women.     

A Phenomenological Study: Black Clergy Leaders’ Response to Violence against Women

Violence against women and religious participation are two phenomena that are pervasive across many African American communities. African American women experience intimate partner violence at a rate higher than the majority of racial groups in the United States. Although many African American women highly depend on their faith and church to navigate their experiences with intimate partner violence, scant attention has been given to the role that Black clergy leaders have in responding to intimate partner violence against women. The current study utilized phenomenological methodology to understand better Black American clergy leaders’ responses to intimate partner violence against women. Findings from clergy leaders’ narratives suggested that they serve primarily four roles when responding to intimate partner violence against women: spiritual advisor, pastoral care/counselor, compassionate leaders, and uninformed responders. Overall, these themes indicate that although African American clergy acknowledge the prevalence of intimate partner violence within their communities, and are trained in pastoral counseling, they lack knowledge and training to respond to intimate partner violence. Discussion centers on the need for clergy to be trained in the area of intimate partner violence response given their position within the church. The results in this study can help clergy leaders understand the basics of intimate partner violence and identify gaps in their practices with abused women.     

The response of christian clergy to domestic violence: Help or hindrance?

This paper reviews the literature regarding Christian clergy as a resource for victims of domestic violence, a common threat to women. Although assistance is available, there are more victims than resources, resulting in many women having limited to no help at all. One resource for victims is the clergy, who are often perceived as respected members of the community and have the authority to make suggestions or even interventions about family issues. However, the literature suggests that cleric theological beliefs may hinder their ability to counsel victims, and the effectiveness of cleric ability to counsel victims varies greatly. Future directions for research are suggested in order to understand what factors influence cleric attitudes and counseling abilities.     

VIOLENCE: A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

A few years ago J. L. Segundo, discussing signs of the alienation of theology in Latin America, could point with some reason to the fact that the theme of violence was entirely absent from theological work. Since then, a significant number of contributions have been made to the discussion, but a systematic survey has still to be made. What we ofer here are some disconnected points for reflection, which are intended to put the issue in theological perspective.     

On Christian Discernment and the Problem of the Theological

This article lays the groundwork for a theology of discernment that seeks to address modern anxieties about the integrity of the theological by showing how Christian believers are sanctified for the identification of true speech about God. It does so by arguing that post‐Kantian understandings of the activity of the human subject in judgement need not be seen as inimical to an account of Christian discernment, that recognition of Paul's understanding of the place of discernment in the Christian life points to alternatives to Barth's attempt to resolve the difficulties of the theological through an exclusive appeal to divine activity, and that Augustine develops a helpful account of the place of a theology of discernment in addressing the problem of the theological by treating the connection between these topics as an element within theologies of sanctification and creaturely vocation.     

A Challenge to the Integrity of Creation: An African Woman's Perspective

Is JPIC a compelling process calling churches and Christians to commitment and involvement within the life of the world? Or, as some critics claim, is JPIC a rather a handy but not too practical theoretical construct within which to house the various environment and development commitments of the ecumenical movement? These are ongoing and helpful questions which are not new to the JPIC process. They are important, and necessary to keep in the forefront of debate and discussions in churches, for they point to a central truth — that JPIC is effective only to the extent that it makes a difference in the lives of people. The wealth of theological reflection and socio-political assessment of the JPIC process, as evidenced by the articles of this issue of The Ecumenical Review, are meaningful precisely in relation to their capacity to form and inform the understandings and actions of churches and Christians in the world. For in the last analysis, JPIC can only be measured in terms of human life, and of flesh and blood. Therefore, it seems worthwhile, and perhaps necessary, within a journal of theological reflection which has as its focus the JPIC process, to include a testimony to JPIC as it is lived out at the grassroots level. We know that women bear a disproportionate impact of the effects of poverty and unjust economic systems. Women too experience a disproportionate impact of the effects of racism. As bearers of life into the world, and as the primary nurturers of future generations, women claim a special place in relation to the environment. It is appropriate, therefore, that Cecilia Asogwa inserts into these JPIC reflections a personal account of a community of rural women in Africa who begin to work together in an economic self-help group, and in so doing discover themselves involved as active participants and leaders in their community. For these women, JPIC has meant personal and community empowerment which they have experienced as part of the healing of creation.     

Discovering Jesus Anew

In light of the political and ritual abuse of religion in India today, this article underlines the importance of Christian women’s engagement with women of all faiths to resist discrimination and violence. The Indian Christian Women’s Movement draws on Jesus’ liberative practice and teaching as women find creative and subversive ways to strengthen Christian women’s solidarity with women of other faiths. While all faith traditions carry embedded patriarchal biases that have been used to legitimize the second-class status of women, they also have streams of liberation motifs. The article employs a feminist epistemology to reconstruct dominant theological motifs and assumptions based on an ethic of care, compassion, and mutuality in relationships.     

The violent matrix: a study of structural,interpersonal, and intrapersonal violence among a sample of poor women

One goal of this paper is to present an integrated tripartite model of violence, with a focus on structural violence within an oppression paradigm. Using qualitative and quantitative data from 27 women (70% African American and 30% European American) who participated in a national substance abuse treatment demonstration program, we describe a model of violence in which structural violence is presented within a transactional relationship with interpersonal, and intrapersonal violence. We suggest that the effects of structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal violence are magnified when race and poverty are considered. The second goal of the paper is to present a preliminary test of the new model of violence. Results indicated that different levels and types of violence are interrelated. Implications of these findings for empowering solutions are suggested.     

Major Challenges for African Women Theologians in Theological Education (1989–2008)

The paper reflects on the major challenges for African women theologians in theological education as presented and experienced in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (“Circle”) which was launched in Ghana in 1989 as a community of African women theologians who come together to reflect on what it means to them to be women of faith within their experiences of religion, culture, politics and social‐economic structures in Africa. Four major challenges are identified that African women theologians have had to contend with and which are still present, namely (1) re‐defining the identity of African women theologians; (2) promoting more women to study theology and be on permanent staff; (3) inclusion of African women's theology in the theological curriculum; and (4) collaboration with male theologians.     

From the Historical Reformation to the “Digital Reformation”

This article analyzes the challenges presented for contemporary theological thinking by the current shifts in communication, starting from the concept of a “digital reformation” as a counterpart to the theological revolution that occurred with the historical Reformation. It goes on to consider how processes of communication on the Internet require us to rethink certain theological categories – from the new and renewed ways of constituting and manifesting theological knowledge within the digital environment through the emergence of new loci, subjects, and theological syntheses. We conclude that the challenges of contemporary digital culture and the need for a connected theology mean that theology, as a field of knowledge, requires a new theological synthesis.     

Violence in close relationships--development of a research area: comment on Archer (2000)

A brief history of empirical research on violence in close relationships is presented. Assumptions of and conclusions made by feminist researchers about the problems of battered wives are reviewed. It is argued that their focus on marital violence as a form of aggression against women by men and their concern for severely beaten wives may have caused them to ignore high levels of female violence in marriage and dating. J. Archer's (2000) meta-analysis of studies of marital and dating violence showed that both sexes display violence in these relationships, although women are more likely to be injured. An expansion of Archer's definition of heterosexual violence (or violence in close relationships) to include sexual aggression and stalking is suggested. Reasons for relatively high levels of female violence in close relationships relative to violence toward strangers are briefly discussed. It is argued that more attention needs to be given to male victims of violence from their partners.     

Asian Women in the Ecumenical Movement: Voices of Resistance and Hope

Throughout Asian ecumenical history, Christian women have found ways to organize themselves and create structures that give them the space to articulate their concerns and contribute their theological and leadership skills to the church and society. Asia's complex context has played a pivotal role in framing the contributions of women to the ecumenical movement, while the ecumenical movement in Asia has played a key role in helping define feminism, feminist theory, and feminist theology for this continent, contributing to national‐level initiatives in each Asian country as well as to regional and to World Christianity. At the same time, ecumenical women in each nation of Asia have linked with secular women's efforts and with women of other faiths to bring transformation in the lives of women, to challenge violence in all its manifestations, and to demand justice and dignity for all women and men.     

Domestic violence and woman's reproductive health: a review of the literature

This paper outlines the current literature on the effect of violence on women's reproductive health. Domestic violence is considered worldwide to be a social health problem which particularly affects women. It is generally categorized in five groups as physical, sexual, verbal, economic, and emotional violence. Domestic violence against women also includes sterilization and abortion by force, forcing women to use contraceptives against their will, or withholding contraceptives from those who wish to use them, genital mutilation, killing female children, and choosing gender in the prenatal period. A woman infected with a sexually transmitted disease by her partner or husband, and having a partner or husband having sexual intercourse with another woman also falls within the sexual violence parameters. Domestic violence has significant effects on both the general and reproductive health of the women, and may cause serious complications and may end with death. The studies show that women exposed to violence have worse health conditions and benefit less from health services than others. Therefore, health care personnel have important responsibilities to define domestic violence and intervene when necessary. These personnel must also be educated in matters of domestic violence, effective policy and protocols must be put in place. And, very importantly, health personnel must be supported by their managers when they try to deal with matters relating to domestic violence.     

The Political Ecology of Dignity: Human Dignity and the Inevitable Returns of Animality

Human dignity names a two‐tier political ecology: one moral‐political community whose members bear a special status of inviolability, and another larger community where violence and degradation are routine. Because ecological relations are never uni‐directional, the routinized violence that “belongs” in interactions with nonhuman animals returns, normalizing violence across gendered, racialized, and politicized lines of human difference. An account of dignity that begins from creaturely vulnerability rather than anthropological exceptionalism not only better expresses key theological insights of the Christian tradition, it also resists the repressed and disavowed violence generated by prevalent accounts of dignity.     

Teaching sexuality and Christianity for perspective transformation: Suggested resources and strategies

Sexual activity and desire have often been seen as inimical to Christian spirituality and practice, and many people have come to view Christianity as austere and shaming regarding sexuality. However, sexuality, religion, and policy‐making have become so intertwined, that to ignore how they intersect and affect particular individuals' lives does a disservice to students. This article presents resources and strategies for incorporating the topic of sexuality into liberal undergraduate and graduate theological classrooms. It provides guidance to instructors lacking research expertise in sexuality and focuses on three main pedagogical categories: perspective transformation; embodiment pedagogy; and sexual violence and trauma. One purpose of this article is to generate conversation: there is a need for further collaboration with colleagues who are experts in various disciplines to continue mining resources to offer diverse strategies and resources.