Ending Abusive Theologies

Reviews / Votes

Safeguarding entails protecting people from abusive behaviours. It also means exposing the various toxic beliefs that can lead to such control and damage. No matter how wide the smile as these are preached, or how justified they are by literalisms and certainties, many lives are diminished and injured as a result. By contrast, love is unarmed and disarming, and is the loudest protest to deep hurt given to a soul or a body. Adrian Thatcher names the evil done when theology is beset with our demons. We can only be grateful for the light he shines in some frighteningly dark places. -- Mark Oakley What if the reason for the decline of Christianity is that people no longer find our doctrines credible, recognizing them instead as abusive and dangerous? And how can we find better ways of reading the Bible? Unflinching in its honesty about our troubled heritage on sexual and other forms of abuse, this is a hopeful book which suggests how we can find better ways to read the Bible. -- Helen King Adrian Thatcher writes here for people 'injured' by abusive theology and harmful beliefs, doing two things with grace and strength. First, he makes a fearless assessment of 'bad theology' in Bible, church and doctrine. But then he offers lively 'sketches of the divine Mystery' which articulate what a 'positive, post-abusive theology' looks like.
Admittedly this book is disturbing as well as exhilarating. Yet it is not only the injured who might read Ending Abusive Theologies, but also pastors and preachers concerned to do no harm, themselves in need of a vision of Christian faith 'that does not endorse violence of any kind'. In this, Adrian Thatcher is an expert guide and this book is an excellent sounding. Much to be recommended. -- Stephen Burns Ending Abusive Theologies is one of those rare books that can make even the most jaded reader sit up and take notice. It balances a clear-eyed insistence on attending to the uncomfortable truth that violence and abuse is hard-baked into biblical texts with a daring re-examination of Love's promise centred on the figure of Jesus. A bracing, insightful, and often appropriately uncomfortable addition to the burgeoning corpus of constructive theology. -- The Ven. Dr Rachel Mann