Gentner / Hundertmark Preventing Spiritual Abuse

A Guide to Prevention and Intervention
2. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-3-6957-6869-1
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 244 Seiten

Spiritual abuse has come into focus, in more recent times, as a distinct form of abuse. It involves the use of religious or spiritual authority to manipulate people, control their thoughts, or enable other forms of abuse. The number of cases in church settings is considerable - and the consequences for those affected are serious. This makes it even more important not to ignore or trivialise spiritual abuse. The Church and society must find ways to take those affected seriously, offer support and develop effective prevention and intervention measures. This book offers sound guidance by bringing together perspectives from psychology, canon law, theology and law. It clarifies key terms and provides definitions. By incorporating psychological findings, it raises awareness of dangerous power structures in organisations and systems. At the same time, it highlights which intervention approaches are most helpful. Examples and experiences from prevention work provide valuable insights for counselling those affected. A separate section with recommendations for action for those responsible offers a practical summary. This makes the book an indispensable guide for prevention and intervention in the ecclesiastical environment.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gentner, Ulrike

Hundertmark, Peter

Leseproben

Definitions of Spiritual Abuse – an Approach

Alessandra Pozzo

1 What is spiritual abuse?

At the end of the symposium on spiritual abuse, which took place in Ludwigshafen in September 2024, the participants were asked a question: “After the discussions during this symposium, could you formulate a definition of spiritual abuse?”

Of the definitions submitted, we will first look at the one proposed by the theologian Marie-Jo Thiel:

First of all, it is noticeable in this text that spiritual abuse is not a sufficiently clear concept, as it refers to a subject that is itself not clearly defined: the spiritual. Without claiming to close this gap definitively, let us try to shed some light on this concept. So, what does this word “spiritual abuse” refer to, which results in such serious forms of harm to people as have been uncovered in recent years?

When we look for the meaning of the word spiritual in dictionaries, we get vague and imprecise definitions, as we are in fact touching on a taboo subject in a secular society which, since modern times, has been primarily committed to greater social justice by focussing on people’s material quality of life and has traditionally left the development of issues concerning the inner life to religions.

Therefore, in dictionaries we find a definition of the word which refers to that which is immaterial and belongs to the sphere of the spirit, understood as the centre of man’s psychic, intellectual and affective life. The word also refers to that which is , in contrast, especially in the Christian understanding, to worldly, earthly, profane or temporal spheres.77

Nevertheless, there are principles at the core of these definitions that are useful for our considerations. The crucial feature in the above terms seems to be to distinguish the spiritual from material, affective and psychological elements. This characterisation has been inherent in Western anthropology since antiquity – to which Christian anthropology also ties in by identifying the human being with three heterogeneous elements: Body, Soul and Spirit. The path of Christian spiritual initiation, as precisely defined by the authors of the Carmelite Dictionary of Spirituality78, who were inspired by the texts of Pseudo-Dionysius79, consists of the practitioner passing through the three states of the human body, going through successive steps of purification.

Since mystical manifestations of the Christian spiritual experience have often been met with incomprehension or even rejection by the Church’s magisterium, the various expressions of spirituality that have emerged over time have rarely had the chance to be an element of study and deepening for a better understanding of the phenomenon, and have often been received with the grea test suspicion by the ecclesiastical authorities. As a result, the ascetic and mystical achievements that constituted the pride of the desert fathers and mothers, for example, in the first centuries of Christianity, lost their original value at the heart of Christian religious feeling over the centuries in favour of a predominance of theological reasoning. From this perspective, the simple expressions of faith that served the spiritual quest were eclipsed by theological elaborations based on rational endeavour.

2. Genuine Christian spirituality and manipulative distortions

In the absence of studies that would have shed more light on Christian spirituality, I will limit myself here to summarising that the path of purification proclaimed by all Christian spiritual traditions is based on gradual internalisation. Firstly, the person’s relationship to their own body is placed at the centre in an appreciative manner. Then the practitioner is guided to delve deeper into their spiritual life and develop a corresponding sensitivity. Then the pratictionner is guided toward the discovery of the substance of the soul through the discernment of a sensitivity specific to this environment. The initiation ends with the perception of spiritual dynamism, which is all the more difficult because this element of the human composite is not endowed with explicit sensoriality. This third dimension was impressively expressed by the metaphors of the night80 and the cloud of unknowing81. Thus, the traditional path of Christian spiritual initiation consists of three stages: Purification, Enlightenment, Union.

The various stages of introspection lead through the body, the soul and finally to the spirit. Therefore, any dynamic that takes a reverse direction, i.e. from the inner to the outer, will distort the spiritual quest. For example, if we look at how the abuse by Thomas Philippe came about, we see that this dynamic takes place exactly in reverse. The spirituality he proclaimed materialised in sexual relationships with people who had taken a vow of chastity. These were forced on them and were motivated by a deviant mystical idea. A fantasised allegedly was the driving force behind a completely inappropriate sexual activity in a context in which it can only represent a regression into a .

Clearly, we are not saying that sexual activity is evil in itself, but that in this context, motivated by a false spiritual approach, it represents an initially spiritual perversion that leads to sexual abuse.

In the Ark investigation report, we read the testimony of a victim who reports that Thomas Philippe “began theorising to try to convince me [...]: the symbolic act of marriage of the prophet Hosea... the transcendence of the prophetic mission (his mission) towards the norms of morality”. He then claimed: “The sexual organs [are] the symbol of the greatest love, much more than the Sacred Heart”. And he used his authority as a theologian – after the victim’s resistance – to justify his perverse statements: “When one reaches perfect love, everything is permitted because there is no more sin”.82

However, there are also more subtle examples of perversions that lead to forms of spiritual rape. We find a description of this in the St John’s Community report83, which quotes a passage from a talk given by Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe in 1947:

We will have this extraordinary love, which is like the love of God, which allows us to penetrate the hearts of our brothers and sisters, who are entrusted to our care. We will love them as God loves them, that is, not from the outside, but from the inside. We will possess them, we will settle in them as God settles in them, we will be at the centre of their hearts.

Once it has settled “in their heart”, the predator can do anything with its prey. The means of seduction that Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe used to install spiritual possession of to his followers w as his intelligence, but in other religious contexts it can also be beauty and aesthetics, in still other contexts emotions and excitement. For this reason, the ways of spiritual seduction would be a topic to deepen in order to better understand how spiritual abuse occurs.

A form of “gnosis” – a secret knowledge of God and his will – creeps into the perspectives that give rise to the aforementioned spiritual abuse. It is important to thoroughly analyse and deconstruct this alleged gnosis. The perpetrator is someone who allegedly has such a gnosis, a special knowledge, and is on a much higher level of experience and knowledge than his victims. Based on this claimed special knowledge, a conviction is formed around him that is shared by all and accords him special authority in his field, which he then uses to anaesthetise his victims. With “great humility”, he deigns to reveal his false gnosis to those who are on a level that he considers to be lower, in order to subjugate them.

The fundamental problem with the definition of spiritual abuse proposed by theologian Marie-Jo Thiel has led us to examine what the word refers to and how spiritual abuse can manifest itself in concrete terms. We will now examine some definitions of spiritual abuse in order to identify its most important characteristics.

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