There have been other Christian books on domestic abuse. This well written one from Christian Focus was prompted by Christians who have suffered abuse. The book begins with the global picture but soon narrows down to individual testimonies, which are quite shocking, although I think I recognised one or two of the cases documented. The final section of the book gives guidelines and suggestions for dealing pastorally with such situations and adds helpful practical chapters on marriage and divorce. It is an obvious book to turn to if anyone is dealing with anything of this sort but I thought it was a good book for all Christians to read especially pastors as it raises awareness of what is clearly a problem, perhaps a growing problem, and is an example of how to think the problem through biblically. One little phrase I appreciated especially, talking about wives submitting was this about when a basic disagreement exists between a man and his wife "Ephesians 5 verse 21 applies either in the husband deciding not to go ahead without mutual consent or the wife submitting to the husband's leadership, though she may be unhappy with the decision." I think that's how we live but it was nice to see in print.
2 comments:
After reading your recommendation, and as a leader at church, I got the Kindle version from Amazon and read the book this week. It makes very depressing and disturbing reading. The stories it contains provide a wealth of ammunition for cynics, atheists and agnostics because Dr Davies nowhere states that the behaviour of the abusers invalidates their claim to be Christian. At the end of the book Dr Davies provides a fine description of the power of the gospel, but seems oblivious to the fact that the stories described undermine and contradict this because it was not made clear that the perpetrators ought to have been subject to the discipline of the church, and in some cases excommunicated. Am I being too harsh? I would appreciate your comments.
Interesting reaction. He does talk briefly about church discipline on page 213 but it is rather mild. I think he was focusing more on how difficult these situations are to deal with. it has also been prompted by the victims and they seem not to be over concerned about church discipline. I'm not sure either that it is so easy to establish who is a Christian and who is not. In the end repentance is the key but then how genuine that repentance is is often difficult to determine. I think he is answering different questions to the ones you are asking.
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