The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority in the Church,David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen, 1991.

According to the authors “Spiritual abuse can occur when a leader uses his or her spiritual position to control or dominate another person. It often involves overriding the feelings and opinions of another, without regard to what will result in the other person’s state of living, emotions or spiritual well-being. In this application, power is used to bolster the position or needs of a leader, over and above one who comes to them in need.” Mark Campbell writes: “I hope one of the books that you have, or are going to read, is The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. I think this is the best book in describing the way the abusive system works; I underlined about every word in the book!” Brent T. writes: “Of all the ones on the topic, I thought this one was the best.” Here is a summary of part of the book on the web that gives a quick overview of this excellent book. Joy, at My Emerging Faith blog, has a good review of this book. Also see tape conference on spiritual abuse by these authors in the Media section.