The Wounded Church
Tending to the Harm within Catholicism
This book can be opened with
Confronting racism, sexism, and clericalism in Catholic life and inviting real conversion and justice.
In The Wounded Church, theologian Annie Selak argues that the Catholic Church must confront its own injuries in order to credibly be Church. Using a feminist framework, she develops a new ecclesiology around three wounds, racism, sexism, and clericalism, that actively harm the Body of Christ and distort its witness.
Attentive to history, pastoral practice, and lived experience, Selak shows how each wound is both inflicted by the Church and borne within the Church. She offers the resurrected body of Jesus, scarred yet no longer bleeding, as a guiding metaphor for ecclesial renewal, a body that does not deny its wounds but is transformed through them. Drawing on Karl Rahner, she grounds hope in the reign of God while insisting on concrete institutional and spiritual conversion.
Written for students and scholars, ministers and lay leaders, The Wounded Church uncovers overlooked histories tied to racism, sexism, and the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and proposes clear theological principles for reform. The result is a constructive, pastorally engaged vision that tells the truth about harm and imagines credible paths toward change, accountability, and justice.
The Wounded Church: Tending to the Harm Within Catholicism by Annie Selak (June 2, $29.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5315-1337-5) cites three core wounds—racism, sexism, and clericalism—that have damaged the church and shares suggestions for healing them.—Publishers Weekly
Selak’s timely book addresses the wounds of racism, sexism and clericalism in the Roman Catholic Church. These wounds present staggering challenges for a Church struggling to speak prophetically to a new generation of Catholics. Yet, as Selak also demonstrates, the complex traditions of Catholic theology also present opportunities to live into a necessary cruciform reality for our times, by embracing the “least among us.” Selak is to be commended on a constructive feminist ecclesiological proposal which would be a welcome addition to many courses in Catholic ecclesiology.—Susan Abraham, VPAA and Dean of Faculty, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA.
Annie Selak's The Wounded Church is a thoroughly researched, accessibly presented examination of what it means when the church, understood as a body, causes harm. Selak's care in presenting the consequences of ecclesial sin for both the church as whole, its individual members, and its public witness is a welcome contribution to ecclesiology and her commitment to intersectionality makes it more relevant than ever. This book should be required reading for all students of church history and ecclesiology.—Natalia Imperatori-Lee, Associate Professor of Systematics, Fordham University
