Healing Violent Men: A Model for Christian Communities

Domestic violence is a widespread though largely invisable 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 for pastoral and programmatic efforts to embrace simultaneously the twin Christian imperatives of forgiveness and responsibility.