Theology under Threat
July 10, 2026
An Online Panel to launch Adrian Thatcher‘s new book: Ending Abusive Theologies.
Following various church abuse scandals, there is now a growing realization that bad theology and bad outcomes are deeply connected. Ending Abusive Theologies attributes the widespread decline of Christian belief in the West in part to harmful, indeed abusive, doctrines. At the same time, there has been a widespread failure of theology to equip the Church to engage with a world that has lost interest in, and patience with, the Church, while retaining its interest in all things ‘spiritual’.
Adrian Thatcher argues that we should start thinking of abusive theology as a category of theology; Ending Abusive Theologies widens and deepens this notion and its catalogue of harms, linking it firmly to the abuse crises in the churches, yet also suggesting the shape of a post-abusive alternative. The book charts a course back to living faith via an unflinching exposure of abusive teachings, abusive Bible readings, and abusive depictions of God that have no place in a gospel-centred theology of justice and love. In this way, we are taken on a rough voyage through seas of controversy, ending calmly in the welcome harbour of an all-loving and non-abusive God.
Adrian Thatcher became the first professor at Plymouth Marjon University in 1995 and joined the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter in 2004. He “retired” in 2011 and devoted much of his spare time to writing and until recently editing Modern Believing. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including Vile Bodies: The Body in Christian Teaching, Faith and Practice (SCM 2023), and Gender and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press) which won the 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title award.
Susannah Cornwall is Professor of Constructive Theologies at the University of Exeter, and Director of EXCEPT (Exeter Centre for Ethics and Practical Theology). She is President of the Society for the Study of Theology (2026-28). Her most recent books are Structural Sin and the Death of Institutions (Routledge, 2026), and Constructive Theology and Gender Variance: Transformative Creatures (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
Andrew Graystone‘s career has been divided between the church and the media. In 2017 he uncovered the story of serial abuser John Smyth QC, and the decades-long cover-up within the Church of England. Since then Andrew has been a prominent advocate for victims and survivors of abuse in the church. His latest book Bleeding for Jesus: John Smyth and the Cult of Iwerne Camps was published by Darton, Longman and Todd in 2025. The film See No Evil which he made with Passion Pictures for Channel Four won the 2026 BAFTA for best Factual Series. Andrew has a PhD from Durham University for his work on the theology of touch in digital culture.
