Violence, forgiveness, and healing

Domestic violence is a widespread, though largely invisible, problem, often exacerbated by the pastoral urge to "keep the family together" at all costs. Yet if that is not a solution, how should the church relate to batterers?

"I believe that the Christian community, if it is to be genuinely a community of healing and hope, must attend to both the victims and the perpetrators of domestic violence", says David Livingston. Addressing the complex phenomenon of intimate violence against wives, lovers, and children, Livingston profiles batterers and battering and traces it to larger cultural pathologies. He explores the ambiguous role of religion and then offers practical advice of pastoral and programmatic efforts to embrace simultaneously the twin Christian imperatives of forgiveness and responsibility.