To some, it might seem that the epidemic of priests abusing children, or husbands beating their wives, is the ultimate betrayal of Christian teaching.  But award-winning author and former director of the Fellowship Program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Rita Nakashima Brock (who has appeared widely in the media, including on Nightline), and Rebecca Ann Parker, an ordained minister and  president of Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union, see a direct connection between traditional Christian teaching and the continuing plague of abuse affecting millions of women and children every day of their lives.

In their acclaimed book, Proverbs of Ashes:  Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and The Search for What Saves Us, Brock and Parker show how God's sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross has unwittingly served as a theological blueprint to justify abuse and suffering.  Drawing upon their own fascinating life-stories, and with "breathtaking self-disclosure" (Booklist), Brock and Parker make a compelling case for a transformed Christianity, one based on a new understanding of  love rather than sacrifice, suffering and atonement.

Using an unusual combination of personal memoir and sophisticated, informed theology reminiscent of Augustine's Confessions, Brock and Parker lay bare their souls along with their healing and restorative vision of Christianity.  Brock and Parker "tell the book's many particular stories beautifully," raves Booklist. 

According to The Seattle Times, "The tales Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker tell in their book are unsettling, even horrifying:  Personal stories of sexual abuse, domestic battering, child abuse, homophobia, racism, war."

Parker, a minister in  both the United Methodist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Association, first began to question the theology of the crucifixion when she worked as a church pastor.  "You couldn't look at Jesus on the cross and see there, as the old liturgy said, 'one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world,' without sanctifying violence against women and children, valorizing suffering and pain, or denying loss.  You couldn't look on the man of sorrows and give thanks to God without ending up a partner in a thousand crimes."

Says Brock:  "I saw in Christianity's ideas about Jesus a theology that made people passive and acquiescent in their own suffering, a legacy of abuse, entrenched in doctrine." 

Brock and Parker draw on a wide array of intimate stories about family violence, the sexual abuse of children, racism, homophobia, and war, to reveal how they came to understand the widespread damage being done by a theology that teaches that suffering is redemptive and that permitting oneself to be victimized is the surest path toward redemption and the fulfillment of God's will.

"God required his son to suffer in order to save the world," Parker says.  "That is an image of God as a child abuser, and Jesus is imagined as the perfect victim.  He accepts the abuse and does it silently.  He is praised in his religious community for accepting abuse as the highest form of religious love.

"If the virtue of God's son is that he accepts the requirement that he suffer and that is an act of love, how is the victim of the priest's abuse going to find a justification for raising a protest?  If God is sacrificing his child, how is the child sacrifed at the hand of a priest supposed to speak out?.... Theology becomes an accomplice to the abuse of children."

"The message that Jesus saved sinners from punishment when he suffered and died on the cross is directed to perpetrators of violence.  It offers forgiveness to those who sin, who cause harm to others.   It offers little to victims, unless they are willing to identify themselves as sinners needing salvation," the authors have written.

Praise for Proverbs of Ashes

"At last, a book that reminds us that reason, creeds, and tradition are not the sole bases for our theological beliefs. At last, theologians bold enough to admit that life, autobiography, and even painful memories from our past exert a fair amount of influence upon beliefs and scholarship." —Renita J. Weems, author of Listening for God: A Minister's Journey Through Silence and Doubt

"'Your maxims are proverbs of ashes!' Thus spoke Job when his friends spouted pious platitudes in the face of his considerable suffering. Brock, a Harvard theologian, and Parker, a seminary president, echo Job's cry in this deep theological study of suffering and its role in the Christian faith. The two women became friends in graduate school and continued to meet after graduation, discussing their personal lives and how their experiences shaped their theology. 'We were convinced Christianity could not promise healing for victims of intimate violence as long as its central image was a divine parent who required the death of his child,' writes Brock. The two authors take turns communicating their views, sharing deep and painful traumas (such as Parker's childhood sexual abuse, estranged marriage and abortion) as they weigh the concept of 'redemptive suffering.' Too many Christian women, they argue, have remained in abusive situations because they have been taught that their suffering is necessary for spiritual growth. The authors are serious theologians, confidently challenging such explicators of the faith as Anselm and Abelard, Wesley and Whitehead. Readers may not agree with Brock and Parker that the fundamental Christian doctrine of Jesus' atonement is inherently dangerous and destructive for Christians, especially women. But they cannot help but be swayed by the book's searing passion and profoundly literary writing style (a remarkable achievement in a coauthored work). Brock and Parker have thrown down a gauntlet that cannot be ignored." --Publishers Weekly

“You don’t have to be a Christian to applaud the courage and vision of these two devout women who boldly propose that human sacrifice has no place at the heart of Christianity.  Their gospel of presence and restoration is good news for everyone.”

--Judith Herman, author of Trauma and Recovery 

". . . a book of both sorrow and hope, and a blueprint for deeper thinking about the things that matter most”  --Rosemary Bray, author of Unafraid of the Dark

"Anyone who reads their story will receive a benediction and be blessed." --G. Richard Wheatcroft, Rector emeritus of St. Francis Church, Houston, Texas

Interview Questions

• Why do you argue that saying “Jesus died for your sins” makes God a child abuser?
  
• In the last year we’ve experienced 9/11, the scandal of clergy abuse, financial meltdowns, and are considering a war on Iraq.  Why attack people’s faith at a time when they need it most?
  
• You claim that Christianity sanctions violence.  But most Christians wouldn’t agree with you.  On what grounds do you make that claim?
  
• You reject the core idea of Christianity - that the world was saved by Jesus’ crucifixion.  How can you call yourselves Christians if you don’t believe that?   
  
• Your book speaks movingly about your personal experiences of violence and recovery.  What makes you think your personal experience is adequate to challenge 2000 years of Christian doctrine?  
  
• What you are proposing is very controversial. What has been the reaction?   

Availability

Both authors are experienced and lucid media guests.  Ms. Brock has appeared on Nightline with Ted Koppel, as well as on National Public Radio.  Ms. Parker has also been a guest on National Public Radio, among other media outlets.  The authors are available nationwide by telephone and will travel by arrangement.  In addition, both authors travel frequently to speak at conferences and to give readings.  We anticipate that they will be available in the following cities on the dates indicated:

For more information or to schedule an interview,
Contact: Susannah Greenberg, Public Relations, 212-727-7271
publicity@bookbuzz.com

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