Trauma & Theology
Trauma begins from the day we arrive out of our mother’s womb, and unfortunately, this may not be the end of the trauma one experiences. Trauma effects and changes everything — intimate relationships, self-worth, questioning God, and as Van der Kolk makes note, the entirety of the brain, mind, and body. Is there hope? And can there be hope in the midst of trauma? He focuses on four main truths as we work towards healing — 1. As humans, we hurt each other, but we can also heal one another through restoring relationships and community, 2. As we communicate, we are given the power to change, 3. We can learn to regulate our body’s responses, 4. We can change social conditions to allow for safety in environments (p. 38).
Hall points out that individuals are made in the image of the Spirit. Even as we acknowledge our imperfect nature, the Spirit can still help us reflect that image. Imperfection is everywhere, and he focuses on Augustine’s perspective of what will happen to the body in the resurrection…will the characteristics of the Fall stay with us? Or, will we be restored and given a new spiritual body with exuberant beauty? (267). The latter sounds more promising, yet also does not dismiss the trauma the body experiences regularly.
Our group discussed on several occasions the notion of whether church can be a place of healing, especially for those who have been harmed by the church. We desire for the church to be a space in which people can bring their broken bodies, where they can share their hurts and their lament and their anger and their doubt. The church has the potential to be a place where, collectively, we can write a new narrative together, acknowleding the places where harm has occurred and where trauma has been an unwelcome interruption.
We wondered together about the way in which Christ does not promise an escape from pain, but He does promise to be intimately present in our suffering. We believe in a God who knows trauma, who has borne it on the cross, who had an embodied experience of trauma just as every single one of us does.
Our bodies must be involved in the process of healing trauma as a church. We imagined how engaging in the liturgy and coming to the table of communion together might be ways to actively involve our bodies. We believe we have the presence of the Holy Spirit, as well as a body made up of muscles and tendons and bones that allows us to connect with the Spirit and heart of God, as well as the hearts of those around us.
As I think of theology being the study of the nature of God and religious belief, I can walk away from this class with an awareness of God’s kindness and love, even in the midst of trauma. Hall says, . . . “God has embraced our suffering in the incarnation of his Son . . . and the final goal God has in mind for his creation governs how divine goodness and mercy manifest themselves in corporate human history and in the narrative of individual lives” (187). I hope to hold onto this truth, in my own suffering, in other’s suffering, in addition to a promise of something new.
