Introduction from the Publisher: #MeToo. #ChurchToo. #pentecostalsisterstoo. Since 2018, hashtags and stories of sexual violence have appeared in all sectors of life from Hollywood to the Olympics; from politics to religion; from universities to seminaries; and among pentecostals. But amid all these stories of sexual abuse and assaults, one may wonder if any stories of healing from sexual violence exist. If so, what does healing look like, particularly among pentecostals who believe in divine healing? Is it a single prayer of faith or a conglomeration of healing factors? In true pentecostal form, See My Body, See Me systematically examines the healing stories of eight pentecostal survivors and the experiences of five pentecostal licensed counselors. It then combines these experiences of both males and females with Scripture, theology, psychology, and culture to provide a pentecostal perspective on healing from sexual violence. As a practical theological approach, See My Body, See Me also offers acts of ministry to provide healing spaces by way of three embodied praxes that are historically and theologically pentecostal: listening, waiting, and learning. See My Body, See Me is an invitation to participate in Christ’s healing ministry to see, hear, and believe survivors as God sees, hears, and believes them.

Interview with Dr. Pamela F. Engelbert

What is a short synopsis of the book?

Pamela F. Engelbert, See My Body, See Me: A Pentecostal Perspective on Healing from Sexual Violence (Pickwick Publications, 2024)

This book is divided into two parts: a) a description of how pentecostals heal from sexual violence, and b) an invitation to the church to provide a safe place for survivors. The first part recounts the healing journeys of survivor-participants while the second part offers specific pentecostal praxes to cultivate safe environments for survivors. This book draws from real stories of pentecostal survivors and licensed counselors. It then looks at those stories through the lens of psychology, culture, theology, and Scripture to form a fuller theological understanding of the healing journey from sexual violence.

What type of book is it?

Why did you write this book?

For a number of years, I had wondered how other pentecostals experienced healing from sexual violence because of my own healing journey. While walking and praying in 2018 or 2019, I sensed a distinct call in which I knew that I knew that this was the topic I was to research. Yet, I also questioned that call since I am a survivor of sexual violence. However, when a colleague said to me, “God gives us questions through our experiences,” I became more confident in pursuing this topic.

What is the meaning of the title See My Body, See Me?

For whom is the book intended?

This book is geared toward those who are pursuing higher education, particularly a master’s degree or a PhD. It is also for those in the academy because they are challenging pentecostals to be places of healing for survivors of sexual violence, and this is a response to that challenge. Yet, it is also for ministers and counselors from whom survivors request help. Finally, and maybe most importantly, it is for pentecostals who desire to nurture healing in the life of the one who says to them, “I was sexually violated.”

What do you hope people will take away from this book?

a) Since a survivor may be the person sitting next to you in the pew or leading on the platform, what are we doing about it?

b) Healing from sexual violence is not instantaneous but a long, unpredictable journey. How are we prepared for the long haul to walk alongside survivors?

c) Pentecostals are in a unique place to be safe places of healing for survivors because of our belief in healing. How are we participating in the ongoing healing ministry of the Spirit in a survivor’s life?

PR

Further Reading

The Long Journey Home An interview with Andrew Schmutzer about The Long Journey Home: Understanding and Ministering to the Sexually Abused.

Bradford McCall reviews Andrew J. Schmutzer’s article, “A Theology of Sexual Abuse: A Reflection on Creation and Devastation” that appeared in JETS 51:4 (Dec 2008).

Mara Lief Crabtree reviews Jennifer Cisney’s article, “Healing From the Pain of Sexual Assault” Enrichment (Spring 2009).

A Charge for Church Leadership: Speaking Out Against Sexual Abuse and Ministering to Survivors: Part 1 and Part 2. Excerpts from The Long Journey Home: Understanding and Ministering to the Sexually Abused.

Churches Bring #MeToo To The Pulpit

Andrew J. Schmutzer, “Sexual Abuse, by Any Other Name?”

Walter Brueggemann, Divine Presence Amid Violence: Contextualizing the Book of Joshua (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade, 2009), xii + 82 pages, ISBN 9781606080894.

To begin this review quite honestly, I chose the text because of the difficult dilemma it was attempting to resolve, namely violence and the Bible and even more specifically violence and war as ordered by God. The second factor that influenced me was the author. If someone can offer a reasonable apologia on the subject, it is Walter Brueggemann. Of value to my choice was also the perfect timing of the book with the war in the Middle East.

Divine Presence Amid Violence argues that aggression in the Bible, and more specifically, aggression that “comes” from God, is not to be against the people, but against the chariots and horses. In the Joshua context, they are the tools used by the evil empire to oppress people and use their labor while holding them in fear. Thus, Yahweh’s command is not to destroy peoples and nations, but to destroy the evil empire that oppresses them through destroying its tools of oppression. Brueggemann believes this is evident on many occasions in the book of Joshua where cities and ethnos are left untouched by the destruction of Israel’s attack.

One, perhaps shocking, aspect in Brueggemann’s apologia comes in the opening chapter, which deals with meaning and interpretation of the Biblical text before approaching a series of narratives from the book of Joshua dealing with violence in the Old Testament as an order from God. This however, does not give enough reason for the statement in the second chapter that, “It is clear that this text, like every biblical text, has no fixed, closed meaning.”

A disagreement with Brueggemann for the fundamental Bible scholar here is a must. For it is quite obvious to the reader, that a narrative has a definite and fixed meaning within its own historical context. And while the interpretation of a given passage through various other historical moments or cultural aspects may vary its essence as a piece of history remains intact.

Brueggemann raises an interesting proposal in the conclusion, suggesting that the modern church is often embedded in the culture of chariots and horses, rather than opposing it; thus counter parting a number of modern interpretations of the Kingdom of God and suggesting that with our theology and actions we as people of God are to be liberators from the tools of oppression and not their enforcers.

Reviewed by Dony K. Donev

Hans Boersma takes a serious look at the traditional theories of atonement and investigates the role of violence in Christ’s saving work. To speak of violence in the context of God’s work of salvation is both obvious and bold. It is obvious that the violent execution of Jesus stands at the heart of the atonement. At the same time, it is bold to speak of this violence as an attribute of God’s nature. The cross stands at the heart of this tension between God’s hospitality and the violent nature of salvation history. Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross unfolds on the basis of the paradox that all acts of hospitality in creation require some degree of violence. Boersma challenges the reader to carry this language also into an understanding of God.

Originally trained in the Netherlands, the Reformed theologian Hans Boersma now serves as the J. I. Packer Chair of Theology at Regent College. He takes seriously the challenges of Reformed theology in general, and Calvin’s view on election and predestination, in particular. Nonetheless, Calvin is not the starting point for this book but rather a sounding board that allows Boersma to develop more fully his own theology of the atonement in the terms of hospitality.

The book consists of three parts addressing questions of violence in the context of divine hospitality. Part one sets the tone by introducing the possibility of speaking about God’s hospitality in the face of violence. Part two focuses on the place of the cross in the atonement tradition. Part three draws conclusions from the previous discussion for Christian life and the Church as a community of hospitality. A short epilogue suggests the possibility for the end of all violence in the arrival of God’s unconditional, eschatological hospitality.

The book engages an impressive range of theological, biblical and philosophical sources. The starting point for the discussion is formed by questions of divine hospitality. The late modern debate has framed these questions largely in the context of the necessity and possibility of an unconditional and unlimited hospitality. Boersma suggests that all hospitality is embedded in a context of violence and therefore shaped by the conditions of human existence. Nonetheless, he does not view the boundaries and limitations of creation as negative but suggests, instead, that a positive perspective on violence could redefine our understanding of the atonement and, in turn, of the divine hospitality. Central to this attempt is Boersma’s definition of violence as harm or injury.

Boersma argues that God’s hospitality requires a passionate anger toward anything that violates this relationship of love. The Calvinist emphasis on election tends to emphasize the limited character of God’s hospitality and draws the violence against the non-elect into the heart of God, thereby blurring the possibility of an unconditional and unlimited divine hospitality. In contrast, Boersma speaks of God’s “preferential hospitality” that serves a missiological purpose by embracing potentially all nations. On this basis, the book unfolds the implications of the various atonement theories for an understanding of God’s hospitality.