On Tuesday evening, the Center for the Study of Spirituality welcomed Catholic feminist theologian Julia Feder to offer a brief presentation of her most recent work, “Incarnating Grace: A Theology of Healing from Sexual Trauma.” Feder is associate director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality and associate professor of religious studies and theology at Saint Mary’s College.
Feder began her speech by recounting her first experiences with students when she began teaching theology ten years ago. She found that students are more interested in issues related to suffering. “Does God want us to suffer? Feder asked out loud, “Does suffering bring us closer to God?”
She then recited a quote from a bookmark given to her by her mother: “Do not be afraid to suffer, for by enduring it you can increase my glory and atone for the sins of the world.” »
Feder said: “When I think of my mother who held this bookmark while praying in a church pew in South Philadelphia and, at the same time, was a victim of sexual abuse in her own home . I know that the Christian tradition has failed terribly.
Feder explained that these traditions not only failed his mother and other survivors, but also gave them the message that traumatic suffering is a “vehicle of God’s saving grace.” “Violence adds nothing to the glory of God,” Feder said.
“I wrote this book to try to contribute to the process of saving our often broken ways of talking about God’s grace in the Christian tradition,” Feder said. “The suffering caused by sexual violence serves no higher purpose or greater human value. This kind of suffering goes against all ways of making sense of the world as good and orderly.
In the United States, more than half of women and nearly one in three men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact in their lifetime. “Sexual violence is an important feature of our life together,” Feder said. “It’s prevalent in our schools, our churches and our homes.”
Later that night, Feder spoke with Jessica Coblentz, associate professor of religious studies and theology. Together, they engaged in conversation about the themes of his book. Coblentz first asked why so many people are hesitant to tackle this topic in theology and spirituality and why she decided to do so. Feder said: “As I researched this book, the common statistics about the frequency of sexual violence in people’s lives changed dramatically.”
Feder began researching this topic 12 years ago, and over the course of writing the statistics grew from one in four women experiencing sexual violence to more than half of women in the United States. “It really struck me, being at a women’s college, that more than half of us had experienced sexual violence involving physical contact,” she said.
Coblentz concluded her questions by asking Feder how she would like church communities and Catholic institutions to put her theology into practice. Feder responded by saying it starts with transparency and honesty about what our experiences are.
“Honesty about the pervasive reality of sexual violence and honesty about the deep wounds that sexual violence creates,” Feder said. “This kind of honesty can happen at an institutional level, first and foremost by being honest in how we supported and normalized the perpetration. »
Feder also shared a call for imagination. “I think we can also do a good job of imagination. Try to imagine what our communities might look like if we didn’t have to tell children, as they grow up, to always be cautious and afraid when it comes to protecting themselves.
Feder continued: “I want us to imagine what childhood could be like, what sex between adults could be like without this fear and what it could be like for women to be free about their own bodies in a world like this one.”
The floor was then opened to students in the audience to ask Feder questions. A student asked what her position was in response to the Christian belief of forgiveness and what victims who cannot find it within themselves to forgive should do.
Feder responded that in the Christian tradition, forgiveness is a gift that God gives us, but sometimes we do not receive this gift. “I also think that these feelings of anger and frustration over sexual violence are also gifts from God to show us what should never have happened to us,” Feder said. “This anger is insight, clarity and truth about the kind of world God wants for us, a world in which something like this would never happen. »