The Bronze Serpent: Abuse, Trauma and the Lifted Healer in the Wilderness
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Published:2023-05-05
Issue:
Volume:
Page:1-21
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ISSN:1740-3553
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Container-title:Journal of Anglican Studies
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Journal of Anglican Studies
Author:
King Fergus J.,Poobalan Isaac
Abstract
Abstract
Many Christian groups and churches have been forced to recognize that they have been complicit in behaviour which has betrayed the gospel. How then is the church to address the historical reality of being an abusive healer? The image of the bronze serpent (Num. 21.4-9; 2 Kgs 18.4; Jn 3.14) offers an ambiguous image which may reveal the reality of the church as both a source of abuse and trauma as well as an instrument of healing within a pattern of restorative justice.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Religious studies