Healing Violent Men: A Model for Christian Communities. .

Healing Violent Men: A Model for Christian Communities. By David L. Livingston. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002. 129 pages. Paper. $17.00.

Livingston addresses a subject most would like to pass up: the origins and treatment of domestic violence within the Christian community.

He begins by laying the theological groundwork for his model: reconciliation and restoration for all involved in domestic violence, including the perpetrators. He posits that "forgiveness is communal" and that the core of reconciliation is: "[even when] a human has become so distorted and disfigured by egoism, rage, despair and fear, that person will be embraced by the Christian community" (p. 65). This idea may seem radical to those who have seen the church respond either by ignoring the violent situation or by seeing the violent spouse and/or the family leave the congregation.

The author goes on to outline the dynamics, stages, and cycles of domestic violence. He stresses that the overriding dynamic is the perpetrator's need for power and control. Livingston combines developmental psychology and cultural anthropology to explain the psychological and social processes at the root of domestic violence. Of particular interest are his arguments that the roots of violence come from a cultural heritage of patriarchy that has marginalized women as psychological extensions of men. In such a heritage, men are socialized into "emotional illiteracy" and are given only anger as an acceptable way of expressing emotion. He argues that boys are socialized via a "gender dance" (p. 36) that reinforces aggression as a way of proving ability and manhood.

In the third chapter Livingston asks whether Christianity "throws gas on the flames of violence." He argues that the church should not assume the goal of reunion for the batterer and his family as a "quick fix" but rather should help the batterer move toward nonviolence via the intervention of men and women trained in the dynamics of domestic violence. He examines how the church has subtly contributed to the cultural and religious expectation that the victim of battering stay with the batterer. Livingston lays open a Christian theology that tends to endorse dominant roles for men (and which at times in history endorsed the punishment of the wife) and insists that the marital bond not be broken for any reason. This male-dominant theology, along with an attitude that denied or minimized domestic violence and that many times used scriptural "proof texting" to command wifely submission, has led to not only physical but also sexual abuse. Livingston asks for a reexamination of these theological underpinnings and a rethinking of reconciliation, meaning re-conciliation with the community who is alienated by the violence rather than reunion with the battered.

The final chapters of the book lay out the author's model of treatment. Livingston advocates a move away from a reunion-as-reconciliation model and toward a "layers of healing" model that calls for accountability without demonization. These layers, borrowed from Aquinas, include a process of contrition (empathy toward the victims and recognition of the need to change), confession (via individuals and groups who act both as confessor and "reality checks"), satisfaction (actions taken to heal the wound towards the battered, the batterer, and the community, with an eye toward keeping the victims safe) and absolution (declaring God's love and mercy, along with a call for never-ending vigilance and responsibility).

The author finishes the book with appendices that are solid practical guides for clergy and church staff. These appendices deal with the identification and treatment of the batterer and offer a great Web site bibliography.

This book is unlike other pastoral counseling books I have read. It is difficult to read it neutrally, and it may be a painful read for some. The author's core idea of reconciliation that includes the batterer may be difficult to grasp and understand. The church has indeed tended to discount and marginalize the victims of domestic violence as well as the perpetrator. The idea that the Christian faith demands that both be cared for and restored to community (vs. containment) can be hard to accept. Nonetheless, domestic violence is an issue that confronts clergy, church workers, and the members of all church communities, and this book is an outstanding resource, both theologically and practically.