Holistic Justice

Church leaders may struggle to incorporate considerations of justice within their responses to domestic and family violence against Christian women. Thomas F. Torrance’s unitary theological method, i.e. his integration of ontology and epistemology, his rejection of dualism, and his ‘onto-relational’ understanding of personhood, can all be valuably applied to bring clarity to this discussion. Beyond informing pastoral church responses, this work can conceptualize justice in a way that holds its theological and legal meanings together and reframes understandings of and responses to the impacts of violence. When considered alongside James B. Torrance’s concepts of theological covenant and theological justice, the result is a unitary approach which theorizes theological justice holistically and theorizes domestic and family violence against Christian women onto-relationally. Crucially for an issue replete with interdisciplinary, intersecting and deeply personal aspects, this enables the reframing and integration of relevant faith and legal components. Further, the Torrances’ profoundly dignifying understandings of human personhood can be brought to bear on the damage to the victim/survivor’s sense of self, opening space for a deeply integrated, ‘embodied’ form of justice to be experienced as a response to the violence.