Lessons from the Spiritual Lives of Men Who Work in the Movement to End Violence Against Women and Children

Abstract

Interviews with men who work professionally in the movement to end violence against women and children are used to trace their resistance to and recovery from patriarchy, and document their radical departure from traditional masculine norms and expectations, both in their spiritual life and in their professional calling. Images of divinity and creation that they find palatable work counter to the root causes of violence and its structures of evil. This exploration begins to discern a shape for the paradigmatic identity transformations of masculinity that are required for this culture to recover from its institutionalized male violence.