Video: Battering of Women in Historical and Contemporary Christian Narrative

March 9, 2015
Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Nancy Nienhuis discuss historical and contemporary Christian narratives of battering

Beverly Mayne Kienzle of the Harvard Divinity School and Nancy Nienhuis of Andover Newton Theological School discuss their research on historical and contemporary narratives of battering. Robert Hensley-King moderates the conversation.

Historical and contemporary Christian narratives of battering often reveal striking similarities in their religious arguments that praise the suffering obedience of the victim and minimize the culpability of the batterer. On the other hand, sometimes women or their communities call upon religious belief to support their resistance and responses to violence. Effective public policy and ministry must take into account the religious dimensions of the problem and the responses to it.

Read a Q&A with Nancy Nienhuis on the HDS news site.