ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book establishes the foundation for this study, explaining what battering, or "intimate partner violence," is and how pervasive a problem it remains, an epidemic whose victims are primarily women. It delineates the dynamics of domestic violence, a necessary step if the reader is to fully understand the role religious and cultural belief can play in facilitating or disrupting such violence. The book describes the theoretical method utilized to analyze the narratives as narratives and as prescriptive theological texts. This method, grounded in feminist theory and feminist liberation theology, seeks to analyze both the actual words of the narratives and the historical context and power dynamics behind the words. A theology of suffering and patience, of this book, encourages the sufferer to see suffering as sent from God, and obedience in the face of it as a sign of godliness.
