Grey Spaces: Searching Out the Church in the Shadows of Abuse
Ebook
Churches around the world have been confronted by shame and culpability in widespread revelations of child sexual abuse. In this book, Jeffrey Driver, who has served the Australian Anglican Church as both a diocesan bishop and archbishop, explores some of the underlying cultural and theological influences that may have predisposed the possibility of abuse, as well as the defensiveness and cover-ups that sometimes followed. The first responses of most churches to the revelations of abuse were, of necessity, mostly structural and programmatic. Recognizing the institutional temptation to do only enough to settle a crisis, Jeffrey Driver calls for something different from the churches. Drawing on the imagery of Holy Saturday, he encourages a deeper journey of reflection and change, for churches and church leaders to linger reflectively in the grey spaces of loss and shame long enough to hear the voice of God addressing them through the vulnerable and the wounded once more, calling the church back to itself and into a deeper, humbler relationship with the world it is called to serve.
“In this volume, Driver tackles the task of reflecting deeply on the cultural factors that permit abuse in the church. . . . Drawing on the broad cultural and philosophical movements that have shaped Western societies, Driver holds a mirror up to the churches to see for themselves the shadow side that the wider community has long seen. This opens possibilities for the deep cultural and institutional transformations demanded of the churches by the tragedy of abuse.”
—Phillip Aspinall, AC, Anglican archbishop of Brisbane and formerly primate of Australia
“Weaving ecclesiology, biblical theology, and the experiences of the Christian church through the centuries, Bishop Driver offers an insightful and thoughtful call to the Anglican Church to metanoia. . . . This is a challenging book that is both intellectually robust and very personal, one that speaks to and out of the Australian Anglican experience and yet has something to say to Anglicans around the world, especially in the West.”
—Robert Derrenbacker, Trinity College Theological School
“Concerned about a church known for its abuse failures and dysfunctional institutions, and where power and domination are tacitly accepted, Driver will give you a sharp-eyed and informed analysis and some hope about where to go. A clearly written theological and social analysis. A brilliant discussion of symbols of power in the church. Startlingly radical. Absolutely a must-read for anyone who is concerned about the church. This is an excellent and timely book.”
—Bruce Kaye, Charles Sturt University
- Title: Grey Spaces: Searching Out the Church in the Shadows of Abuse
- Author: Jeffrey W. Driver
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666794151, 9781666736168, 9781666794144, 1666794155, 1666736163, 1666794147
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666794151
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-12-22T05:55:34Z
Jeffrey W. Driver was the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Australia, for eleven years, and before that, the Bishop of Gippsland. In retirement, he is a research scholar with the University of Divinity in Melbourne and acting Principal of Newton College in Papua New Guinea.