Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Men’s Violence Against Women

Abstract

Men's violence against women can take many forms: physical, sexual, emotional, or financial. In order to keep this chapter to a manageable length, I will focus mostly on physical and/ or sexual violence within the context of intimate, romantic relationships. I choose this arena because it is much easier to define than emotional or financial abuse, and historically within Christianity, it is the context in which violence has gray overtones. Few would argue that beating or raping an unknown woman is a legitimate act. However, given the prevalence of the idea of the husband's headship in the family both in scripture and the Eastern Church fathers, the question becomes, does Eastern Orthodoxy endorse a form of headship that can include violence- especially physical violence-against a woman? At the outset, I wish to define my standing with regard to Eastern Orthodoxy. I am a professor of psychology who joined the Orthodox Church about 15 years ago and am relatively familiar with the Russian tradition in particular. I speak Russian and therefore will incorporate some Russian-language resources into this chapter. I do not speak any other language from a traditionally Orthodox culture, nor do I know the ancient languages of the early Church fathers. This means I am accessing many materials in translation and likely missing some resources altogether. The reader should keep in mind these limitations while reading this chapter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)