Beyond Betrayal: The Priest Sex Abuse Crisis, the Voice of the Faithful, and the Process of Collective Identity - Hardcover

Ewick, Patricia; Steinberg, Marc W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022664412X ISBN 13: 9780226644127

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2019

Synopsis

In 2002, the national spotlight fell on Boston’s archdiocese, where decades of rampant sexual misconduct from priests—and the church’s systematic cover-ups—were exposed by reporters from the Boston Globe. The sordid and tragic stories of abuse and secrecy led many to leave the church outright and others to rekindle their faith and deny any suggestions of institutional wrongdoing. But a number of Catholics vowed to find a middle ground between these two extremes: keeping their faith while simultaneously working to change the church for the better.

Beyond Betrayal charts a nationwide identity shift through the story of one chapter of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), an organization founded in the scandal’s aftermath. VOTF had three goals: helping survivors of abuse; supporting priests who were either innocent or took risky public stands against the wrongdoers; and pursuing a broad set of structural changes in the church. Patricia Ewick and Marc W. Steinberg follow two years in the life of one of the longest-lived and most active chapters of VOTF, whose thwarted early efforts at ecclesiastical reform led them to realize that before they could change the Catholic Church, they had to change themselves. The shaping of their collective identity is at the heart of Beyond Betrayal, an ethnographic portrait of how one group reimagined their place within an institutional order and forged new ideas of faith in the wake of widespread distrust.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Ewick is professor of sociology at Clark University and coauthor of The Common Place of Law, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Marc W. Steinberg (1956-2019) was the Sydenham C. Parsons professor of sociology at Smith College and author of England’s Great Transformation, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Review

“It’s not that often that you emerge from reading an academic book feeling personally moved, intellectually challenged, politically excited, yet also wary and a little sad. Beyond Betrayal is a tight, well-argued book that packs a theoretical wallop alongside vivid case material from an intensive, multiyear study of a local organization engaging an issue of urgent social concern. Ewick and Steinberg challenge us to rethink our understanding of collective identity formation within social movements, while providing us with an intimate close-hand look at the reflexivity and cultural work involved in responding to betrayal and moral shock. In short, this is a moving, provocative, and important book.” (Ann Mische, University of Notre Dame)

“Beyond Betrayal is richly interesting, theoretically sophisticated, and beautifully written. Ewick and Steinberg tell a fascinating story of a group of movement stalwarts: Catholics who, in the wake of priest sexual abuse revelations and determined to act on their feelings of betrayal, spent the next fifteen years developing a far-reaching vision of what the Catholic Church might become and, above all, defining—and redefining—who they were. The book is chock-full of theoretical aperçus, insights that are thoroughly grounded in the case at hand rather than imposed on it. Most of all, I am struck by the authors’ skill in plumbing the nuanced and evolving views of these unlikely activists.” (Francesca Polletta, University of California, Irvine)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 022664412X
• ISBN 13: 9780226644127
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176