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work is divided up into four main sections. We are grateful for the authors’ insights and their courageous commitment in this volume to build a framework for our exploration.

      Part 1: Biblical and Textual Studies introduces the topic with an exploration of the biblical text and historical sources related to Jesus’ crucifixion. This part starts with an abbreviated version of David Tombs’ 1999 article, entitled here ‘Crucifixion and Sexual Abuse’. The original article is now readily available and offers greater detail on the politics of ‘state terror’, exploring the torture practices of the Roman Empire in comparison to Latin American regimes in the 1970s and 1980s. The chapter included here focuses on connections between sexual violence and torture and gives perspective on the sexual humiliation, violence and abuse involved in crucifixion.

      Michael Trainor’s chapter, ‘Covering Up Sexual Abuse: An Ecclesial Tendency from the Earliest Years of the Jesus Movement?’, provides a comparative analysis of the passion accounts in Mark and Luke. Trainor takes into account narrative choices made in each Gospel that reflect early Church sensibilities and what the Gospel audience(s) would have heard and understood. Trainor’s work reads the gospel tradition in the light of the cover-ups conducted within the clergy sexual abuse scandals in Australia, drawing parallels between the two.

      Mitzi J. Smith explores the crucifixion narratives in the Gospels from a womanist lens with her chapter ‘“He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word”: A Womanist Perspective of Crucifixion, Sexual Violence and Sacralized Silence’. Smith explores the parallels in black hymnody, the reality of lynching and racialized sexual violence by building on the notable work of James Cone and Angela Sims, and considers how the black church in the US has historically made meaning from Jesus’ ‘silent suffering’ in New Testament accounts.

      Monica Poole introduces three biblical texts in her chapter ‘Family Resemblance: Reading Post-Crucifixion Encounters as Community Responses to Sexual Violence’. Through a lens of feminist biblical studies, Poole takes on Thomas’s doubting demands (John 20.24–25), the centurion’s declaration of belief (Luke 23.46–49) and Jesus’ words ‘Don’t touch me’ (noli me tangere; John 20.17). In these three texts, Poole takes consent and believing victims/survivors of sexual violence seriously. She also compares acts of sexual violence to a bomb blast with wide area effects, arguing that the ‘blast radius’ includes not only the victim’s own trauma, but how the community members respond, including in ways that may compound the harm.

      In Jeremy Punt’s chapter ‘Knowing Christ Crucified (1 Corinthians 2.2): Cross, Humiliation and Humility’, the focus shifts into the Pauline New Testament. Punt explores the concern for Jesus’ body in Pauline literature and Paul’s emphasis on the humiliation of the cross. In this chapter, Punt addresses gender, body, shame and honour, and what it meant for the church in Corinth to follow a shamed and crucified Christ.

      In the final chapter in Part 1, there is a comparative analysis from Gerald O. West entitled ‘Jesus, Joseph, and Tamar Stripped: Trans-textual and Intertextual Resources for Engaging Sexual Violence Against Men’. West draws links between the Hebrew Bible and New Testament to illuminate sexual violence through forced stripping. He explores the Joseph narrative in Genesis 37—46, the Tamar narrative in 2 Samuel 13, and the gospel texts Mark 15 and Matthew 27. West also describes a contextual Bible study methodology developed at the Ujamaa Centre in South Africa to take this further. In this work, West and colleagues focus on contextual readings that consider the specific experience of men who have been victims of sexual violence and abuse.

      Part 2: Stations of the Cross comprises 14 poems entitled ‘This is My A Body’ from Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama. These serve as a meditation on the 14 Stations of the Cross observed mainly within the Roman Catholic tradition. Ó Tuama’s wider work in the areas of peace, conflict, queerness, biblical studies, stories and the body provide a rich range of resources to encourage new thinking. The moving reflections presented here give space for a different type of creativity which, in turn, enables a different type of engagement with the material. The content of this volume is difficult and we hope to provide multiple entry points for engagement, from biblical studies into cultural analysis, and on to lived experience in the later chapters.

      Part 3: Parsing Culture, Context and Perspectives starts with the chapter ‘Conceal to Reveal: Reflections on Sexual Violence and Theological Discourses in the African Caribbean’ by Carlton Turner. Turner uses post-colonial hermeneutics and socio-historical analysis in order to address the legacies of shame and the systemic consequences of sexual violence in the Caribbean that are ‘hidden in plain sight’. Looking specifically at the legacy of slavery and colonialism and then considering its effect on African Caribbean culture and dance hall music, Turner’s work connects these strands to build a painful picture of a violent past and present that still offers hope and scope for resistance and healing.

      Rachel Starr invites us to consider culture via the television show Veronica Mars with her chapter ‘“Not pictured”: What Veronica Mars Can Teach Us About the Crucifixion’. Continuing a ‘hidden in plain sight’ theme, Starr uses storytelling and references in Veronica Mars and pop culture to explore bigger questions. She asks what exactly it is in the torture and sexual violence experienced by Jesus – if anything – that saves us. In true feminist fashion, Starr reads the gaps in the stories, considering who is left out, whose story is not told, and why.

      In ‘Jesus is a Survivor: Sexual Violence and Stigma Within Faith Communities’, Elisabet le Roux builds upon qualitative research based on the lived experiences of survivors of sexual violence in various African countries undertaken by faith-based organizations. In this chapter, Le Roux considers the cultural contexts and perspectives that inform understandings and responses from individuals and faith communities that lead to stigmatization and pressure to conform and/or stay silent.

      Ruard Ganzevoort, Srdjan Sremac and Teghu Wijaya Mulya creatively tweak the words of Matthew 25.40 in their title ‘Why Do We See Him Naked?: Politicized, Spiritualized and Sexualized Gazes at Violence’. They offer a critical perspective on the differing ways in which we see, understand and make meaning of sexual violence, and explore how this applies to Jesus’ crucifixion. Drawing on academic conversations between sadomasochism and Christian theology, they ask how the torture practices of the cross can be seen by a Christian audience as both sexual and spiritual.

      In ‘The Crucified Christa: A Re-evaluation’, Nicola Slee critiques the representation of the abuse and humiliation of women in Christa figures and discusses how Christa figures might bring the nakedness, sexual humiliation and abuse of Jesus into clearer public view. From a feminist and practical theology perspective, Slee argues that the gendering of nakedness as female in Christian thought and representation may act as a further barrier to recognizing the significance of Jesus being naked on the cross.

      Writing from Botswana, Mmapula Diana Kebaneilwe combines womanist theology and critical discourse analysis methodology in ‘Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse: A Womanist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Crucifixion’. In this chapter, Kebaneilwe draws on the lived experiences of women in Botswana and explores how the stripping of women as an act of public sexual humiliation and abuse in Botswana can inform a reading of the stripping of Jesus and vice versa.

      Finally, with Part 4: Sexual Abuse, Trauma and the Personal, we gather together stories and reactions from survivors and those close to them. They consider the legacy of sexual abuse and the ways in which victims, survivors and the ones who love them make meaning of the experience. They ask searching questions for which there are no easy answers.

      The chapter from Beth R. Crisp entitled ‘Jesus: A Critical Companion in the Journey to Moving On From Sexual Abuse’ begins this final section. Crisp provides a personal victim/survivor account, considering the various tools and resources available within the Christian tradition and her personal faith that enabled her to reclaim her experience. She then explores issues related to communal responsibility and solidarity.

      From the perspective of those who bore witness to Jesus’ abuse, Karen O’Donnell explores what bystanders and witnesses are called to do in her chapter ‘Surviving Trauma at the Foot of the Cross’. O’Donnell calls us to an ethical activism that is informed not just by solidarity, but also

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