When the sacred binds: recognizing spiritual abuse in intimate partner violence through the lens of spiritually mediated coercion

Spiritual abuse within intimate partner violence (IPV) is increasingly acknowledged across sociological, psychological, and pastoral literatures, yet it remains conceptually fragmented in practice. This paper argues that the difficulty lies not in identifying harm, but in how dominant frameworks separate power, meaning, and authority when coercion is enacted through the sacred. As a result, survivors’ experiences may be partially recognized while the binding role of religious obligation and moral authority remains insufficiently examined. Using the term spiritually mediated coercion, the paper identifies a pattern in which coercive control is enacted through sacred meaning, religious authority, and moral obligation, so that compliance is experienced as spiritually necessary rather than merely relational or strategic. Through a critical conceptual analysis of sociological, social work, psychological, and pastoral frameworks, the paper identifies shared interpretive limits that fragment this form of harm across domains. In response, four conceptual requirements are articulated for ethically recognizing and responding to spiritual abuse: symbolic literacy, authority mapping, structural recognition of spiritual injury, and tolerance for sacred rupture. The paper concludes by outlining implications for research, professional training, and institutional response when the sacred itself functions as a mechanism of coercive control.