Vulnerability, Vulnerance and Resilience—Spiritual Abuse and Sexual Violence in New Spiritual Communities

In February 2017, Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, acknowledged in an interview that some 70 "new spiritual movements" were under investigation for abusive behavior committed by their founders. The number of cases...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions
Main Author: Keul, Hildegund 1961- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI 2022
In: Religions
Further subjects:B spiritual communities
B non-survivors
B vulnerance
B "other-power"
B Vulnerability
B Sacrifice
B vulnerability paradox
B expenditure paradox
B sexual and spiritual abuse
B the sacred
B Resilience
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Summary:In February 2017, Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, acknowledged in an interview that some 70 "new spiritual movements" were under investigation for abusive behavior committed by their founders. The number of cases that remain undetected is probably large. This article uses the example of these communities to analyze the precarious tension between vulnerability, vulnerance, and resilience. It draws on Céline Hoyeau’s excellent study of those founders of new spiritual movements in France who were later exposed as abusers. It also presents my research on the sacred in its dangerous connection to the victimizing sacrifice. My basic thesis is that exploring the link between vulnerability and resilience is not enough. Rather, vulnerance needs to be systematically included in the analyses. This new approach opens up a more complex understanding of abuse, cover-ups, and disclosure. It can tackle both the vulnerant resilience of the perpetrators and the voluntary vulnerability of survivors in disclosing abuse.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel13050425