Violence, Society, and the Church: A Cultural Approach

Gerald A. Arbuckle, S.M., Ph.D., is the co-director of Refounding and Pastoral Research Unit, Sydney, Australia. He is the author of From Chaos to Mission: Refounding Religious Life Formation and Healthcare Ministry: Refounding the Mission in Tumultuous Times published by the Liturgical Press.

Violence and its effects are constantly in the news, but the roots of that violence often go unexplained. Violence, Society, and the Church examines the cultural roots of violence and the processes in cultures that foster or allow violence to occur. Arbuckle analyzes society's role in violence, the emergence of the New Right in Western societies, and cultural attitudes and issues concerning the Church. The power within mythologies and the process of using mythologies to legitimize violence against others and environment are explained. The concept of a culture having forces that resist change is a central theme, and Arbuckle proposes and studies four models of cultures: premodernity, modernity, postmodernity and paramodernity. The first three legitimize particular types of violence, and individuals move from one type to the other depending on the circumstances they face. The fourth model-paramodernity-describes people's efforts to counter violence. Chapters are: "Violence, Power, and Culture," "Premodernity and Violence," "Premodernity: Impact on Church," "Premodernity: Violence through Gossip, Shame, and Humor," "Modernity, Rationality, and Violence," "Destructive Envy, Jealousy, and Scapegoating in Modernity," "Postmodernity: Background to New Forms of Violence," "Demanding Certitudes: Ethnicity, Fundamentalism, Restorationationism," and "Paramodern Culture: 'Signals of Transcendence.'"