Attempts to understand the dynamics that link domestic violence and religion have appeared, most of the time from within faith communities themselves. Christian believers from different churches and groups have reflected on the resources of their tradition to assess the relationship between gender-based violence and Christian doctrine and practice. Gender-based inequality has always existed across wide variations of human cultures in varying degrees (see The Patriarchal Tendency). One can surmise that cultures and societies that have been influenced by Christian belief are not exceptions to this tendency. One finds in (Judeo)-Christian tradition different perspectives about domestic violence, although it does not term it in exactly different ways compared to its modern and secular articulations.

In contemporary times, when the labels (e.g. domestic violence, sexual trafficking, prostituted women) are more clearly articulated and defined, the link between domestic violence and Christianity entails an assessment of the positions by which Christians have articulated the problem (and some solutions too). Seeking to be more relevant agents in contemporary society, Christian churches, its leaders, theologians and other lay experts have discussed and reflected about this matter, and have reached a wide range of insights.


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