The Child's Song: The Religious Abuse of ChildrenWestminster John Knox Press, 1995 M01 1 - 188 pages Theological ideas and biblical injunctions have frequently been employed to legitimate the physical abuse of children. Some theological ideas are inherently abusive because they create fear in a child's mind, causing a child to feel alone, odd, and of little worth. Donald Capps exposes the abuses that theology and the Bible have inflicted on vast numbers of children. In particular, he is concerned with the "hidden" abuses of children by well-intentioned adults and the role that religion plays in the legitimation of these abuses. |
Contents
Religious Sources of Childhood Trauma | 3 |
The Sacrificial Impulse | 78 |
The Child Jesus as Endangered Self | 96 |
A Garden of Childhood Verses | 129 |
The Soul Made Happy | 156 |
Notes | 163 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham and Isaac abuse of children Adeodatus adults Alice Miller alternative scenarios Augustine Augustine's aware Bakan Banished Knowledge beatings believe Bible biblical literalism biblical texts brother chapter chil child abuse childhood childrearing Christian concerned David Wilkerson death Denise Levertov dissociation e. e. cummings emotional enlightened witness experience experienced fact faith fear feelings Galway Kinnell garden Garden of Eden God's Gospel writers Greven guilt Hannum New York heart Hebrews Hildegard and Hunter hubris human Ibid illegitimacy inflicted intellectual autonomy interpretation Jesus Joseph Keaton Kierkegaard legitimation lives Louise Glück Mary mother never night occurs pain physical punishment poems poisonous pedagogies psychological question readers religion religious ideas sacrifice Saint Nicholas Schaberg sense sexual shame Sharon Olds song soul story suffering suggests teachers theological tion torment trans trauma Untouched Key victim virginal conception voice William Stafford woman word writes