Abstract

The magnitude of the problem of the abuse of children is finally beginning to be recognized in our society. While statistics vary widely, there can be no question that the problem needs serious attention. Repeatedly, studies have shown that we cannot view child abuse as an isolated phenomenon, or as a recent one. Instead, there is a long history of the misuse of children. In order to deal with the problem as a society, we need first to understand it; where it comes from, how it is transmitted, what its effects are; and then to determine how we can end it. ;The Roman Catholic Church has recognized that child abuse needs to be dealt with and as a result, there is a growing literature on pastoral responses. As yet, however, even though humanity has traditionally turned to religion to explain why evil exists, there; have been no attempts at a theological explanation for the existence of the problem of child abuse. Such an explanation is needed, both in order to aid the pastoral interventions and to help the church make sense of the existence of such evil in the world. In this thesis, therefore, I propose that an explanation for the presence of child abuse can be found in the sin of the world theology as outlined by Piet Schoonenberg. I use the theories of psychoanalyst Alice Miller to outline the magnitude of the problem of child abuse, and its means of transmission. ;Schoonenberg's theology takes full account of the history of abuse, and of the weight of this history: the sins of the generations are such that no-one can any longer be born without being contaminated by them. Society and even the teachings of Christianity inevitably bear signs of this abuse and in turn transmit it to the next generation. But it is the immediate situation into which each child is born that Schoonenberg, and Miller see as the primary means of transmittal of the sin of the world. Schoonenberg's concept of situation is far more abstract than Miller's real documentations of child abuse, but it does provide a conceptual framework for the reality that she exposes