Description
Christian women experiencing domestic and family violence (DFV) may have their vulnerability increased and vindication jeopardised if the justice system is viewed as inconsistent with a ‘faith response’ to DFV. This harmful perspective rests on misunderstandings of how theological concepts of justice align with those of law. This paper outlines findings from my doctorate, considering how an integrated faith-law approach to DFV can enable a form of justice to be experienced by Christian women which is consistent with both theological and legal understandings. It draws from Scottish theologians J.B. Torrance and T.F. Torrance’s work on theological covenant, socio-political reconciliation, and onto-relations for its theological meaning of justice, and from Barbara Hudson’s key principles of restorative justice: discursiveness, relationalism and reflectiveness, for much of its legal meaning. This conceptualisation of justice allows for faith norms and law to be viewed in an interrelated way, providing a corrective for the depersonalisation inherent in violence by enabling personhood, dignity and freedom to be centred within a faith-law response. This may allow for a synthesised experience of ‘embodied justice’ to be experienced irrespective of the precise ways in which victim/survivors may or may not choose to engage with the justice system.| Period | 11 Feb 2026 → 13 Feb 2026 |
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| Held at | The Wesley Centre, Melbourne |
| Degree of Recognition | National |