Resisting Religious Coercive Control

Abstract

Religious coercive control refers to the use of religious beliefs and doctrine as means to coercively control intimate partners. Scholars have shown that some abusive partners use the Christian doctrine of submission as a means of religious coercive control. I explore how victims who experience the doctrine of submission qua religious coercive control actively resist it. I argue that victims' successful resistance of the doctrine is contingent on their religious capital-that is, the knowledge and mastery that people have of a particular religious culture-and interpretive confidence-that is, people's subjective confidence in their interpretations of religious culture-related to the doctrine.