The Stone Sphere

“There is a redemptive quality for an agitated mind in the spoken word, and a tormented soul finds peace in confessing.”       Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

The Stone Sphere  by Suzanne E. Greco, published by Ekpyrosis Press in May/June 2025

 This compelling memoir delves deep into the author's journey of incest by an ecclesiastical leader - her father and domestic abuse by her Italian husband. Despite a deep-seated skepticism of religious authority figures, Suzie is unexpectedly led to David F. Holland, her ecclesiastical leader. A meeting that can only be attributed to divine providence. With his help, along with the support of angels and the divine, Suzie manages to extricate herself from the patriarchal vortex of not only her perpetrators, but also from religious social biases and stigmas and the institutional harms imposed.

 Traversing a Jungian path to healing and transformation unconsciously, the author interweaves profound insights from theology, metaphysics, and science, exploring the harrowing realities of incest and clergy sex abuse, trauma, and the insidious patterns of intergenerational abuse. The author draws upon a rich tapestry of scholarly voices such as Diana Russell, Antonio Damasio, Peter Levine, Judith Herman, Dan Allender, Bessel Van Der Kolk, N.T. Wright, Terryl Givens and more. 

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This book was written amidst escaping domestic abuse after coming forward and speaking the truth about having been abused sexually as a child, as such its writings poignantly reflect the conditions and emotions of that period. This book is a living monument, a tribute to all who have suffered the atrocities of sexual violence. May ecclesiastical and political leaders hear the call for reform and step forward to enact change. If a worldwide memorial were erected for all the souls, both living and dead, who have braved the unseen battles of sexual abuse, it would be a colossal memorial indeed. Dr. James N. Poling shared, “... thousands of persons live in hell every day because they are the victims of sexual violence.” Abuse simply does not occur in a vacuum; it is a relational web woven together, affecting each one of us. “... we are what and who we are largely because of what we have been given by others. It means that we create each other, that we are quite literally derived from each other.”