The Elephants in God’s Living Room
Volume Three
The Mennonite Church and John Howard Yoder
Collected Essays
Ruth Elizabeth Krall, M.S.N, Ph.D.
Abstract of Volume 3
In a series of loosely connected essays, this book examines and explores the interpretive meaning of the twentieth-century United States Mennonite Church’s encounters with women’s allegations of sexual misconduct in the life of its leading evangelical theologian-ethicist John Howard Yoder. This book builds upon previously published theoretical work about (1) clergy and religious leader sexual misconduct and (2) religious institution clericalism in Volumes One and Two of this series which can also be accessed and downloaded from www.ruthkrall.com.
This current volume focuses upon multiple hermeneutical issues of interpretation and meaning. To do this it utilizes a methodology of thick description as described by American anthropologist Clifford Geertz. It also builds upon the psycho-historical biographical methodology of Euro-American depth psychologist and developmental psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. Throughout the book the author raises an underlying question for readers of these kinds of biographical case studies: once we know x or y about a socio-cultural-historical situation, so what?
Public health issues of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in sexual violence studies are also addressed. Suggestions are made to the present and future church about ways to proceed into a less violence-prone and more violence-resistant future.
Includes bibliographic references
- Clifford Geertz
- Erik Erikson
- John Howard Yoder
- Clergy Sexual Abuse – 20th Century Mennonite, United States
- Mennonite Church Polity
- Religious Institution Clericalism – 20th Century Mennonite, United States
- Psychobiography or psychohistory
- A preliminary theology of accountability and forgiveness
© 2013, Ruth E. Krall
Enduring Space
