LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Robbins, Anna

Acadia University

Doctor of Ministry

D.Min.

Ministry

Acadia Divinity College

The central thesis of this dissertation is that the physical body is a crucial category for engagement and understanding for those visiting prostituted women in the brothels of Czechia (official name of the Czech Republic). As such this dissertation focuses on narratives of the physical bodies of prostituted women, women within the Bible, and the brothel volunteers. A narrative approach is used to express the varied lived experiences of the bodies of women. The dissertation begins with a narrative sketch of the lives of women in prostitution, based on the eight years of experience the researcher has visiting women in the sex industry of Czechia. This sketch leads to the discovery that the prostitution experience involves the related themes of connection and disconnection: to and from God, others, and self. These themes are followed through the narratives of various biblical women, finding that they too experience a sense of connection and/or disconnection based on the narratives of their bodies. In the theology section which follows these narrative explorations, the human body in its desire for connection as having iconic value in further exploring the mystery of God, is discussed. As the female body lives within a state of disconnection, yet longs for connection, so too does it point to the longing of the human heart for connection with the ultimate source of connection, the divine one. Qualitative research, in the form of focus groups and questionnaires, demonstrates that brothel volunteers have the same themes flowing throughout their narratives as those of the women in prostitution and the women in the Bible: disconnection and connection, based on lived narratives of their bodies. As a result, strategies to help volunteers to better engage in brothel interactions, emerge. These include the need for more connection with their own bodies, and the desire for training curriculum which would facilitate this. In the final chapter of this dissertation the researcher suggests some training needs and ways in which these needs might be addressed, through additional trainings and more adequate training curriculum.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3499