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Durham E-Theses Individual Autonomy and Institutional Constraint: Structural Sin in the Church of England through the Lens of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. ILLINGWORTH, ELIZABETH,ROSE How to cite: ILLINGWORTH, ELIZABETH,ROSE (2020) Individual Autonomy and Institutional Constraint: Structural Sin in the Church of England through the Lens of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13863/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Elizabeth Rose Illingworth Individual Autonomy and Institutional Constraint: Structural Sin in the Church of England through the Lens of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. In the last ten years social scientists have recognised that Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is not simply an individual issue; instead, organisational and societal culture has a role in the perpetration of, detection of, and response to, abuse. This secular learning has not been fully integrated into the church’s self- understanding, given the church’s emphasis on the personal nature of sin and responsibility. This is further complexified by a flaw in the church’s self- understanding which suggests that the presence of the Spirit in the church means that it is a unique organisation, which does not need to engage with secular learning, or even that it is incapable of sin. The presence of CSA within the church clearly shows this to be an inaccurate understanding. I draw on Healy’s Practical-Prophetic Ecclesiology to suggest that the church is as capable of sin as the rest of the world, and that the Spirit works in the non- church world as well as the church, which means that it is appropriate for the church to draw on secular learning to shape its practice. Furthermore, I argue that the concept of structural sin, initially articulated by Liberation Theologians, offers a theological framework which enables the church to engage with both the individual and structural aspects of the abuse perpetrated within it. I do this by exploring the extent to which structural understandings of sin can be integrated with Palmer and Feldman’s organisational theory of CSA and Hartill’s social scientific approach to CSA. I test the validity of this integration by exploring the extent to which these theories have explanatory power for the abuse perpetrated by Peter Ball, and the church’s response to the allegations made against him, as portrayed in the transcripts of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. 1 Individual Autonomy and Institutional Constraint: Structural Sin in the Church of England through the Lens of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Elizabeth Rose Illingworth MA by Research Department of Theology and Religion Durham University 2020 2 Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter One - Setting the Scene ............................................................................................. 12 Child Sexual Abuse: An Introduction ............................................................................... 12 A Crime of Pathological Individuals? ............................................................................... 14 The Media’s Role in Shaping Society’s Understanding of CSA ............................... 17 CSA within the Church ........................................................................................................... 21 Sharing Learning across Academic Disciplines ........................................................... 23 Palmer, Feldman, and Hartill’s Work .............................................................................. 27 The Role of IICSA ..................................................................................................................... 29 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 34 Chapter 2 - Ecclesiology: Sin and the Church’s Self-Understanding ........................ 36 Can the Church be Sinful? .................................................................................................... 36 Issues with Blueprint Ecclesiologies ............................................................................... 42 Healy’s Ecclesiology ............................................................................................................... 44 Prophetic Critique of Church Practices ........................................................................... 47 The Work of the Holy Spirit in Church and Society ................................................... 50 Engaging with conflicting truth claims ........................................................................... 54 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 59 Chapter 3 - Structural Sin as a Theological Driver.......................................................... 60 How does Structural Sin fit in with other concepts of Sin in Christian tradition? .................................................................................................................................... 60 Critiques of the Theology Behind Structural Sin ......................................................... 63 Social Sin, Structural Sin, and Structures of Sin ........................................................... 67 The Role of Group Leaders in Influencing Structural Sin ........................................ 72 How is the Church to be understood as a Structure of Sin? .................................... 75 How Is Structural Sin Challenged? ................................................................................... 79 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 83 Chapter 4 - Organisational and Sociological Approaches to CSA .............................. 85 Pierre Bourdieu: Field, Habitus, Capital ......................................................................... 85 Donald Palmer and Valerie Feldman, Comprehending the Incomprehensible .... 89 The Development of Abusive Relationships ................................................................. 91 Institutional Processes .......................................................................................................... 97 The Role of Power or Authority within an Organisation ...................................... 102 Organisational Culture ....................................................................................................... 107 3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 111 Chapter 5 - Institutional Dynamics Visible within Abuse Perpetrated in the Church of England .................................................................................................................... 113 The Development of an Abusive Relationship .......................................................... 114 Institutional Processes ....................................................................................................... 118 Authority within the Field ................................................................................................ 126 Organisational Culture ....................................................................................................... 130 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 137 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 138 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 144 4 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 5 Introduction Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is presently understood as one of the gravest crimes that an individual can commit. Perpetrators are vilified, receive death threats, and when imprisoned must be held separately from other prisoners for their safety. They are perceived as the lowest of the low, having destroyed a child’s innocence and abused their trust. Largely portrayed by the media as sick or evil, having acted in ways that are beyond what is socially acceptable, there is no concept that their context or culture may have influenced their offending. Instead, they are scapegoated