'From Childhood': A Markan Soteriology for Victims of Childhood Abuse. (August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: O'Halloran, Nathan
• Is Part Of: Irish theological quarterly. Volume 87:Number 3(2022)
• Page Start: 181
• Page End: 191
• Publication Date: 2022-08
• Subjects: abuse -- atonement -- exorcism -- possession -- salvation -- victims; Theology -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 282
• DOI: 10.1177/00211400221098012
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-1400

Abstract

In this article I bring an analysis of the boy possessed 'from childhood' in Mark 9:14–29 to bear on the contemporary situation of victims abused as children. I suggest that at least some of the discomfort we may feel in comparing an abused child to a possessed child in the Gospels stems from a residual feeling that demoniacs are guilty. But the Gospel witness is that possessed people are innocent and unwillingly 'colonized.' I then note the literary echoes between Mark 9:14–29 and Mark 14:32–42 which highlight Jesus' identification with victims in Gethsemane. I conclude by suggesting that the possessed boy of Mark 9 is representative of innocent childhood victims in his unwilling bondage, and that Jesus' salvific solidarity with him in Gethsemane offers to all victims of childhood abuse a healing space from which to identify with Christ on his healing journey toward resurrection.