The Changing of the Gods: Abused Christian Wives and their Hermeneutic Revision of Gender, Power, and Spousal Conduct

Abstract

In this manuscript, I use interpretive theory to explain how two formerly abused Christian wives exposed a more contextual and liberatory interpretation of gender, power, and conduct within the Christian marriage. Through narrative, I illustrate how meanings from the Bible and alternate ideological contexts helped them revise and subvert once oppressive hierarchal teachings on conduct and authority within marital submission. I also explore their discursive cultures and convictions to examine how text and interpretation hindered initial trajectories toward removing victimization. Future research on domestic violence and women should consider the religious contours of the experience and the processes that facilitate their meaning making. Qualitative inquiry can help expose the messages and strategies that compose abused religious women's oppression and agency. Keywords Hermeneutics . Evangelical women . Domestic violence . Submission . ReligionSociologists, intervention professionals, and others who examine religion and gender violence argue that religious authorities and messages could urge some religious women to tolerate and/or return to abusive relationships (e.g.

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