Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence ─ Religion, Testimony, and Visions of Healing

Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence examines sexual violence against women, how religion and society contribute to a rape culture, and the extreme suffering endured by rape victims as a result. Using the testimony of women who have experienced both rape and the consequences of rape culture - from a range of religious, cultural, ethnic, and social contexts - the book explores both the suffering and healing of rape victims from WWII to today.

Victim invisibility, the inability to express pain, and the tendency to assume shame and self-blame are all considered. The role of society in shaping and reinforcing these responses is analysed, particularly in relation to how society operates to enhance victims' emotional and spiritual trauma, a trauma which can result in spiritual death, in no longer being able to view the self in relation to the divine. The study explores the possibility for multiple spiritual resurrections within the practice of daily life in order to challenge rape culture and encourages both individual healing and social change through the shamanistic practice Han-pu-ri.

Gina Messina-Dysert is Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at Ursuline College, USA, and co-founder and co-director of the Feminism and Religion project (http://feminismandreligion.com).