Leaving Silence: Sexualized Violence, the Bible, and Standing with Survivors

By Susannah Larry

Elkhart, IN 46517
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Herald Press
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781513808192

Susannah Larry

Susannah Larry is a writer and scholar who works in between the piles of blocks and baby dolls on her living room floor. Raised in Atlanta, she brings together academic rigor and deep faith commitments in her writing. Susannah is assistant professor of biblical studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. Though denominationally nomadic for several years, she now feels at home in Anabaptist and Mennonite traditions and attends Hively Avenue Mennonite Church. Susannah enjoys writing creative nonfiction, running, and cooking vegetarian meals. She blogs at susannahmarielarry.com.

Book preview

1

An Original Sin

Sexualized Violence, Power, and the God Who Sees

In the beginning

Sexualized violence starts in the beginning. Well, not quite in the beginning: the good world that God creates in Genesis 1–2 does not include the horrors of violence that humans would soon inflict on one another. That state of paradise may not have lasted long, but it reveals God’s deepest desires for humanity to live in relationship with one another. Beloved partners could behold each other naked and without shame. Gendered hierarchies didn’t exist. Creation was there to enjoy and share, not to dominate and