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Trauma Theory and Biblical Studies
Abstract
Since the early 2000s, several scholars have explored the use of trauma theory as an interpretive lens to understand some of the most difficult and painful texts in the Bible. The use of trauma theory does not constitute a method of interpretation but a frame of reference that, when coupled with other methodologies (e.g., psychology, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, refugee studies, etc.), can yield innovative results. While trauma theory has proven useful in the study of exilic texts in particular, scholars have ventured beyond the narrower concern of exilic literature, investigating the use of trauma theory for other portions of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The impact of trauma is a significant component of the human condition that lies beneath the production of a wide variety of biblical texts.
... are safe and have a capacity for advancing recovery. In this regard, insights from the social sciences concerning the effects of traumatization on individuals and collectives, as well as avenues for recovery from those effects, have opened up compelling approaches for interpreting biblical texts (Becker et al. 2014;Boase and Frechette 2016;Carr 2014;Daschke 2014;Frechette 2015;Garber 2014Garber , 2015O'Connor 2002O'Connor , 2011Poser 2012;Stulman 1998). ...
... 3 Accessible discussions includeCarr (2014),O'Connor (2002O'Connor ( , 2011, andStulman and Kim (2010). Slightly more technical discussions includeBoase (2014),Boase and Frechette (2016),Frechette (2014Frechette ( , 2015,Garber (2015), andStulman (1998). ...
This theoretical essay addresses issues related to employing spiritually integrated therapeutic dialogue with trauma survivors for whom the Bible is a significant source of meaning-making. The discussion focuses on two common biblical motifs that involve violent depictions of God: one that construes the suffering of God’s people as divine punishment and one that imagines divine violence as a consequence enacted upon those who violate God’s people. It is argued that these motifs can function as symbolic representations with a capacity to facilitate interpretation of traumatic experience in an adaptive manner. Psychological insights into the effects of trauma, and recovery from those effects, reveal an adaptive functionality for biblical motifs that depict the subject’s suffering as divine punishment and that imagine divine violence being carried out upon those who violate the subject. Understanding that functionality, in turn, offers a resource for engaging in spiritually integrated therapeutic dialogue with trauma survivors.
... A clear definition and demarcation of trauma theories and resilience studies is still pending, with the scholarly discourse dominated by the field of trauma. Biblical studies have fruitfully employed the trauma discourse as a hermeneutical frame to interpret the end of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah as traumatic events that triggered wide parts of the scriptural writings as coping literature (O'Connor 2014;Frechette 2015;Garber 2015;Boase and Frechette 2016b). In 2013, the Society of Biblical Literature inaugurated the program unit "Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma", which has been going strong ever since. ...
The article analyses the theology of homecoming in the book of Isaiah and makes a case for using resilience theory as a hermeneutical frame for the task of Hebrew Scripture theology. Defined as “positive adaptation despite adversity”, resilience builds on the crisis setting of wide parts of the Hebrew Scriptures and demonstrates that the formation of theology represents a resilience discourse. In the case of the Isaianic prophecies of return, three concepts of return are distinguished (return, gathering and homecoming, a second Exodus) that respond to the adversities of exile and diaspora. Thus, the prophecies offer a literary home that the different religious communities through time can inhabit.
... Several scholars interested in the effects of trauma read the biblical text through "the lens of trauma" (Frechette and Boase 2016;Becker et al. 2014;Garber 2015). However, we have been interested in the converse: using the trauma conveyed in biblical text (narrative and poetry) to provide resonance 4 for sufferers, a connection with others that can lead to healing. ...
In this paper, we report on a seminar held with a group of Bete women (from Ivory Coast) who have undergone significant trauma. We first discuss literature which supports principles of trauma-healing, and the theoretical bases of our approach (which
combines performing arts and exposure to Scripture content). The method of the empirical work is then described, followed by the results achieved. Finally, the concluding section notes lessons learned from this experience and suggests ideas that could be explored to further develop this method.
... The impact of trauma is no longer the sole purview of an exilic approach, but is part and parcel of the human condition that lies beneath the production of a wide variety of biblical texts. 38 A basic principle of life is the tension that exists between suffering on the one hand and hope on the other hand. This tension, however, can suffocate hope and cause despair. ...
One should not underestimate the impact suffering has on a community. Therefore in biblical studies we are aware, more than ever before, of the impact traumatic events had on individuals and groups. Trauma studies have become an important part of the textual analysis as the exegete turns to potential markers of trauma in the literary prophecy of the HB. The aim of this article is, first of all, to give an overview of the development of trauma studies, as well the influence trauma studies had on Biblical Studies. Secondly, this article will reflect on trauma and experiences of trauma - especially collective trauma of a community - as portrayed in the book of Micah. This is illustrated by an analysis of Micah 4:1-5, a pericope that is part of a biblical book that seems to accentuate that restoration and transformation can only take place after judgement.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, studies on “cultural trauma” have pushed Hebrew Bible exegesis in new directions. Although its initial focus was on the period of the Babylonian exile (6th century BC), after 25 years of research, this novel framework has shown its fruitfulness when reading a range of literature: poetic and prophetic literature, as well as narratives of sexual violence. Trauma studies also engage an inspiring dialogue with other disciplines that are already well established in biblical exegesis, such as feminist scholarship. The aim of this article is twofold: on the one hand, we will introduce the concept of “cultural trauma” and the main features that characterise the narratives responding to cultural trauma. On the other hand, we will present the main contributions of this frame of reference to recent Hebrew Bible research and the concrete contributions to a text as disturbing as the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter in Judges 11:29–40.
The medical world approaches cancer as a physical disease, and nothing else. Medicine sees little in Man except anatomy and physiology, a system – albeit complex – of cells, tissues and organs, each with its particular function in maintaining and perpetuating the species. However, any confrontation with illness reminds us that we are much more than the sum of our physical components and abilities. A terminal illness such as cancer inflicts not only a physical wound but also damages a person’s mind, emotions and spirit. A person’s reaction to a terminal diagnosis is accompanied by physical symptoms similar to one’s reactions to a traumatizing event. Trauma – the body’s reaction to a stressor that requires coping mechanisms beyond the victim’s strength – is felt by the cancer patient not only at the time of diagnosis, but throughout the entire (long) journey through treatment, remission, evaluation and possible recurrence. Approaching cancer as trauma is essential in order to give back dignity to a patient, but also to change the treatment paradigm. More specifically, medical treatment should be supplemented by interventions that relate to mind, emotions and soul. Taking the raising of Lazarus as a model, I will look at the way in which biblical characters can accompany the patient and trauma victim in their spiritual and emotional journey through grief. It is my intent to show how reading the Bible through the lens of trauma makes evident the presence of Christ in the life of a terminally ill patient.
The last decade has seen a significant expansion in Lamentations research. Since 2013, over 30 new commentaries and monographs have been published on various topics in this short biblical book, along with dozens of articles and essays. Many of these studies represent extensions of the once ‘new’ trends of the 2000s—literary studies, feminist interpretations, trauma readings, and reception historical studies—while others have pushed Lamentations research into even ‘newer’ territories (iconographic exegesis, performance criticism, intertextual approaches, and so forth). This essay traces these various trends in Lamentations research and surveys many publications from the last decade.
Challenging Contextuality provides a new and innovative contribution to the study of biblical texts and their interpretation by bringing together current and promising, yet still marginal approaches to biblical interpretation. As marginal voices are often drivers of innovation, this volume, therefore, both sets the agenda for the future of the field and provides a synthesis of fruitful approaches so far. In doing so, it aligns itself with the broadly shared, yet still only partially operationalized hermeneutical conviction that contextuality is a catalyst for interpretation. This applies in equal measure to approaches and methods that are often framed as ‘traditional’ or ‘mainstream’ (e.g., the methodological canon of the historical critical approach as the offspring of the European Enlightenment) and those that are often dubbed ‘contextual’ (e.g., forms of feminist or ‘indigenous’ interpretation). Ultimately, this volume aims to ground contextual biblical interpretation within the broader landscape of biblical studies. The contributors to this volume are all interested in the contexts in which Bibles are read. Rather than a series of examples of contextual biblical interpretation, though, this book is concerned with what it means to do contextual biblical interpretation, how contextual biblical interpretation challenges biblical scholarship, and what chances there are for this mode of inquiry, going forward. The overarching thesis of this volume is not that context matters—that is self-evident. It is that context should be a challenge and a chance for biblical scholarship, and not only ancient contexts.
Jeffrey Alexander’s social theory about trauma provides a theoretical framework to explore Matthew’s Gospel’s two first chapters as a trauma narrative that wrestles in a creative way with at least two significant issues for its original audience: (1) How can Jesus be the Christ/Messiah and yet undergo a shameful and violent death? (2) What are the national and theological implications of the destruction of the Temple in AD 70? Alexander’s four dimensions of representations of cultural trauma (the nature of the pain; the nature of the victim; the relation of the trauma victim to a wider audience; and the attribution of responsibility) guide the analysis. Matthew 1–2, as a trauma narrative, processes past trauma to encourage resilience against future traumatization. This can be a powerful tool to shape identity and promote solidarity by opening new avenues for understanding violent imagery.
The COVID-19 pandemic proved challenging and traumatic for many, with its effects still being felt four years later. This article contends that the witness of Jesus of Nazareth and the early Christian communities can serve as guides for navigating post-pandemic life. This article will do so by examining the historical context of first-century Jewish Palestine with attention given to the Roman Empire’s brutality and traumatizing impact. It will then provide an analysis of the Matthean Jesus’ call to love one’s enemies and the Markan Jesus’ emphasis on bearing the cross as constructive responses to the trauma Matthew and Mark’s communities went through. Lastly, it will show how Jesus and the early Christian communities reveal that pain and trauma can be healthily transcended for better ways and behaviors. Thus, what has happened to us, however painful, can bear the seeds of a healthy purpose and meaning that can lead to us and our world becoming more humanized. The research methodology in this article is interdisciplinary, employing biblical theological, historical, and psychological methodologies.
Lamentations 2:20 and 4:10 are biblical texts described as ‘texts of terror’ as well as traumatic biblical texts where ‘tender-hearted women have eaten their children’ (NLT). As Lamentations 2:20 and 4:10 mention a traumatic event, a trauma biblical approach will be utilised to read these biblical texts. The biblical trauma hermeneutics challenges the traditional and judgemental reading of traumatic events as well as the social, cultural and intellectual power of those who tell the stories of the traumatised victims in the Bible and contemporary society. This study will demonstrate the ways in which trauma theory when applied to reading these biblical texts, challenges and subverts the narrator’s version of these biblical texts. Ultimately, the mothers in these biblical texts will be presented as victims of biblical collective trauma rather than as mere murderers and eaters of their children. Transdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study displays intersections between Psychology and Biblical Studies. In this article, Trauma Theory is used to read and interpret Lamentations 2:20 and 4:10. This study is interdisciplinary because I make use of psychology and trauma scholars to read Old Testament texts.
This article engages the reading of Isaiah from a trauma hermeneutical perspective. It presents a reading of Isaiah with special attention to the comforting message of Yahweh to the exiles in Babylon for the dawn of the new time of their release and restoration to Jerusalem. The argument of the article presents a response to Rambo (2010) and Groenewald (2018) on the question of trauma. The fact is that trauma shall end with the coming of the Lord as the God who frees people from the place and state of trauma. This argument projects the possibility of the end of trauma, which remains a further theological-ethical stimulant for biblical interpreters to participate in the healing process and the restorative actions of God. As typical of the prophetic books, the book of Isaiah is both a book of judgement and a book of restoration. It presents the goodness of life in the acts of God’s gifts of freedom. The sensitivity of God helps us to reimagine the image of God in the context of the suffering of his people. Isaiah 35:1-10 and 40: 1-5, 10-11 is the good news of hope that helps its readers to rejoice for the coming time of true freedom and the tender care of God. Keywords: Trauma, Cultural Trauma, Exile, Joy, Redemption, Hope, Healing
Pocos documentos de la Iglesia han tenido tanta influencia y recepción en los ámbitos académicos y pastorales católicos como el de la Pontificia Comisión Bíblica del año 1993, con el título La interpretación de la Biblia en la Iglesia. A 30 años de su publicación, el presente estudio es un aporte a la reflexión sobre sus aportaciones, su vigencia en la actualidad y las nuevas perspectivas que se abren en la interpretación bíblica contemporánea.
With the rise of a trend to reread biblical texts through the lens of trauma, some scholars have begun to apply Jeffrey Alexander’s definition of social trauma to reading biblical texts in the Hebrew Bible, such as Jeremiah and Lamentations. This reading assumes that the Hebrew Bible constructs a social trauma to shape ancient Israelites’ national identity. However, this article points out that Alexander’s theory does not fit well with the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. The main argument consists of three case studies concerning the book of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and communal psalms of lament; the author argues that none of these writings answers the four questions crucial for the construction of a socially mediated trauma in Alexander’s theory.
This study aimed to find out the impact of the Boko Haran Insurgency on women survivors in Michika Adamawa state, Nigeria. Boko Haram insurgency has caused heaps of havoc and negative impacts on Nigerian societies, and most especially in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa state, many lives were lost, and properties were destroyed. The insurgents left many survivors with scars on their minds and traumatised. Many women have become widows. They were sexually abused, raped, oppressed, displaced, forced into marriage, and forced to accept other religions; some even witnessed the assassinations of their husbands and were traumatised. This paper adopts both narrative and library sources through the use of interviews and focus Group Discussions. This study has investigated and observed the severe impact of Boko Haram activity's negative effects on women. The study hypothesises that holistic trauma counselling is an effective therapy that will cure the soul and provide relief to the mind of the traumatised. The study finds out that many women have experienced different forms of trauma. The study concludes that many women and girls in our culture may appear to be fine on the surface. Still, they silently suffer from melancholy, tension, and hopelessness due to their encounters with terrorists. Pastoral caregivers should work with therapists from diverse areas to establish a strong trauma healing team capable of dealing with all trauma cases. This paper recommends that religious leaders have a greater role than anyone else in providing comfort, recovery, empowerment, and fairness for the survivors.
In this article, I identify where contemporary scholarship on Jonah continues to ask enduring questions of any biblical text like dating, structure, and message. I also outline how scholars have brought contemporary approaches to the book. Finally, I suggest some points of divergence between scholarship in the late 20 th and early 21 st centuries and consider how recent scholarship has treated past contributions. This survey shows that scholarship continues to grapple with questions that have long pervaded Jonah’s interpretive history. At the same time, contemporary approaches bring exciting possibilities to a book that has often resisted a monologic interpretation.
The book of Ezekiel may be effectively understood in terms of Jeffrey Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma, in which catastrophic events take on a wider cultural significance because they are perceived as having consequences for group identity. The book of Ezekiel develops a new master narrative of Israelite history and identity, in which the catastrophes of 597 and 586 BCE are the culmination of generations of moral and religious offences against Yhwh, the God of Israel. Ezekiel’s narrative constructs these events as having profound consequences for Israel’s identity. Those taken to Babylonia are identified as victims of divine violence; as victims, they are the ones whom Yhwh has chosen as true Israelites. The book distinguishes this new Israel from the remnants of the old one still in Jerusalem, rejecting the claim that the latter are still members of the house of Israel. According to Ezekiel, to be an Israelite means to be a deportee. Although few texts outside Ezekiel are quite so overtly negative regarding Israel’s history, its reckoning of the significance of Jerusalem’s fall for Israelite identity resonates throughout the canon. With rare exceptions, the experience of deportation and life in Babylonia became the sine qua non of Israelite identity: only those who had it could count themselves true members of post-597 Israel. As a construction of the cultural significance of trauma, therefore, Ezekiel was remarkably successful. Thereafter, the events of 597 were construed not simply as practically and politically catastrophic, but as traumatic: the new master narrative placed them front and centre, with indelible and profound consequences for Israel’s self-understanding.
The Qumran Apocryphon of Jeremiah C (4QApocrJer C a-d ; 4Q390) provides reflections on the trauma of devastation, dislocation, and captivity at the time of the Babylonian exile as narrated in the book of Jeremiah. Yet, just as the Damascus Document (CD/4QD), its apocalyptic review of periods goes well beyond the biblical era. This article analyses the narrative discourses of the Apocryphon in comparison with the Damascus Document with the aid of modern theory about cultural trauma, cultural analysis of remembering and forgetting, and recent insights about theodical discourse in the Hebrew Bible. It analyses the recurrent trope of “God hiding his face” in Qumran Jeremianic traditions against broader biblical and early Jewish backgrounds. The article investigates the understanding of reciprocity in human-divine relations and explores how theodicy relates to forgetful remembrance of covenantal relationships. It contends that the Qumran Jeremianic traditions deal with cultural trauma in terms of lament, admonition, theodical discourse, and divisive memory against the historical background of the late Second Temple period, in particular the era of the Maccabean crisis.
Isaiah 53 has been at the crossroads of Jewish-Christian polemical debate about the identity of the unnamed figure. This article emphasises that it is not the identity but the function of the Servant which is pivotal. This study examines relevant terms, imagery, and allusions in Isa 53 to determine intertextual links to cultic texts. It investigates the Servant's association with the triple roles of priest, sacrifice and offerer/sinner while also considering his expiatory function. The study frames this cultic portrayal of the Servant as a response to the "templeless age." The destruction of the temple in 587 B.C.E resulted in a dilemma for the deportees who sought to reconcile with their deity in a foreign land. The traumatic loss of the temple resulted in creative ideas of how to access God in the absence of a sanctuary. Isaiah 53 addresses the cultic void by shifting the site and means of expiatory atonement from a physical place (the temple) to a person (the Servant). Keywords: Isaiah 53, Servant, Fourth Servant Song, Temple, Sacrifice, Expiation, Biblical Cult, Reconciliation, Atonement
The work of Claus Westermann was foundational for the modern study of lament literature in the Hebrew Bible. Westermann’s work on the Psalms arose from his experiences in the Second World War, where he learned to value both the praise and the lament elements of the Psalms. This article reconsiders Westermann’s contribution to the theology of lament in light of contemporary theory on the impact of trauma on individuals, focussing on the understanding of the impact of traumatic experience on the assumptive world of those who suffer. There are significant points of correspondence between the two, demonstrating anew the insights of Westermann’s work.
This work offers an overview of trauma theory’s relations to biblical studies. In addition to summarizing the theoretical landscape(s), it provides exegetical forays into Ezekiel and, in part, Exodus and the Eucharist. The analysis will engage these materials’ traumatic ethoi , including their connections to trauma informed eating and queerings, so as to offer entryways into the wider critical conversation. While these exegetical foci may seem arbitrary, that is in part the point. As readers will see, trauma defies sense-making. Akin to postmodernist poststructuralist intertextualities, trauma cannot be flattened into neat narration. Trauma is capricious, leaving survivors to carry with them multivalent and even paradoxical connections to their experiences. This project thus attempts to perform trauma’s plurisignification as much as it tries to explain it, using a set of traditionally unexamined pairings to do so. While not an exhaustive survey on trauma theory and the Bible – such work could fill the space of multiple publications – the following work provides a representation of both the theory of trauma and its applications within the biblical field.
La théologie africaine qui se découvre chez J.-M. Ela entre en dialogue avec les sciences humaines. Cet article postule le même dialogue avec la psychanalyse. À partir de la théorie du trauma, il s’intéresse à la violence coloniale, étatique et ecclésiale ainsi qu’aux événements historiques qui affectent la vie des hommes et des femmes, en perturbant gravement parfois leurs capacités de pensée et de symbolisation. En creux, à partir du vécu traumatique engendré par cette violence en postcolonie, il est possible de voir la pertinence d’un christianisme africain qui réécrit l’histoire de l’Afrique en laissant Dieu se dire comme un Dieu libérateur.
The Song of Moses blames Israel for the idolatry that caused divine wrath and led to the people's near annihilation by their enemies. This article analyses the Song's structure and dynamics, its rhetoric of blaming and shaming, and its literary context within the book of Deuteronomy before re-evaluating the Song's message through the lens of psychological and sociological trauma theory. Psychological research on the relation between trauma and feelings of guilt and shame helps us to understand the divine message of blaming and shaming as an externalised transformation of self-blame. Through the lens of the sociological concept of cultural trauma, the Song can be seen as an intellectual 'working through' of past collective suffering that marks the community's identity for the future.
Moral injury emerged within clinical psychology and related fields to refer to a non-physical wound (psychological and emotional pain and its effects) that results from the violation (by oneself or others) of a person’s deepest moral beliefs (about oneself, others, or the world). Originally conceived in the context of warfare, the notion has now expanded to include the morally damaging impact of various non-war-related experiences and circumstances. Since its inception, moral injury has been an intersectional and cross-disciplinary term and significant work has appeared in psychology, philosophy, medicine, spiritual/pastoral care, chaplaincy, and theology. Since 2015, biblical scholarship has engaged moral injury along two primary trajectories: 1) creative re-readings of biblical stories and characters informed by insights from moral injury; and 2) explorations of the postwar rituals and symbolic practices found in biblical texts and how they might connect to the felt needs of morally injured persons. These trajectories suggest that the engagement between the Bible and moral injury generates a two-way conversation in which moral injury can serve as a heuristic that brings new meanings out of biblical texts, and the critical study of biblical texts can contribute to the attempts to understand, identify, and heal moral injury.
The present research is a study on posttraumatic coping in some paragraphs of the second letter to the Corinthians of the Apostle Paul. As a research in the field of practical theology, in methodological terms, this thesis follows the steps of the hermeneutical arc proposed by Ricoeur (1976, 2002, 2016), from the perspective of the Psychological Biblical Criticism (Rollins 1983, Kille, 2001, 2004; Ellens, 2012).
In the first part of this study a detailed review of current research on posttraumatic coping in the field of psychology is made. Then we examine exegetically four selected texts from 2 Corinthians that describe the ways in which Paul faced various traumatic events in his life. Each paragraph is analyzed looking for the texts to show their world and their own sense, to then identify the hermeneutical keys of coping that are observed in them.
After a careful analysis, eleven keys of coping present in the selected Pauline texts were categorized: 1) Paradoxical identity that marks the experience of the Apostle as a phenomenon of self-understanding that incorporates the awareness of fragility and constant vulnerability to hardship, but simultaneously united to the perception of itself as triumphant to adversity, thanks to its unconditional link with the sacred, manifested in Jesus as the Messiah; 2) Experience of faith understood as fidelity and perseverance, especially in the midst of tribulations, in such a way that resisting, overcoming and even growing out of suffering is described as an expression of authentic faith and genuine affection for Jesus as Lord; 3) Resignification of death and traumatic events, as circumstances of a negative nature that is relativized and whose harmful effects are not perceived as chronic; 4) Coping associated with an altruistic practice towards his brothers and sisters in faith; 5) Coping with a marked character of eschatological type; 6) Explicit and habitual expression of the traumatic events experienced, which implies taking charge of them, without denying nor evading them; 7) Detachment from the material or visible things, considering these aspects of life as facets of reality that are not definitive, but as manifestations of a preliminary plan that will disappear; 8) Identification with Jesus as a model of coping with extreme adversities; 9) Thanksgiving or gratitude, as a permanent practice, in both favorable and unfavorable circumstances; 10) Perception of the consoling presence of God constantly in the midst of suffering; and 11) Prayer described as a personal and community behavior of concrete beneficial influence in life.
Finally, a conversation between these findings and the current psychological contributions on positive coping of trauma, allowed us to corroborate the significant similarities between the approaches of Paul regarding coping in extreme adverse events and the outcomes of this research on hardiness, resilience, posttraumatic growth and positive religious coping.
Among the main conclusions reached in this investigation, we can highlight that Paul offered, in the analyzed texts of 2 Corinthians, coping modalities that showed a permanent search for "sense of coherence" (Antonovsky, 1979, 1984, 1987, 1993), which involves the comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness of adverse events, but in his case, from a fundamentally theological framework ("sense of theological coherence"). In addition, it was found, when looking for common factors in the coping keys observed in the Pauline texts, that these can be synthesized in the so called "theological virtues": faith, hope and love, besides the concept of identity in Christ, which function as dispositions that allow the religious/spiritual articulation of traumatic events, both on a personal and community level.
The present study sought to develop a practical theology (defined as theological understanding of Christian praxis) of posttrau-matic coping in a Pauline perspective. We believe that this study has achieved a significant understanding of hardiness, resilience, posttraumatic growth and positive religious coping modalities, from a theological perspective, which can contribute to the development of new practices of pastoral care, especially in contexts of adversity.
In the opening of the Jewish War , Josephus claims not only that his history represents the true and full account of the war, but that, in violation of Greek historiographical conventions, its language expresses his personal grief. Josephus’ expression of personal emotion differentiates him from the Greek tradition, in which lament is customarily expressed in other genres. Josephus borrows instead from the biblical tradition of lament to mourn the fall of Jerusalem. The concept of moral injury from trauma studies describes the psychological damage caused by betrayal in combat settings, a phenomenon which Josephus’ comments about the causes of the disaster resemble. This elucidates why Josephus emphasizes his emotions in his history, drawing on past Jewish responses to imperial-colonial encounters to shape his personalized response to the catastrophe of his own day.
This article investigates the notion of insidious trauma as a helpful means of interpreting the story of Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah as told in Genesis 29-30 that has found its way into the haunting trauma narrative of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. In the first instance, this article outlines the category of insidious trauma as it is situated in terms of the broader field of trauma hermeneutics, as well as the way in which it relates to the related disciplines of feminist and womanist biblical interpretation. This article will then continue to show how insidious trauma features in two very different, though intrinsically connected trauma narratives, i.e., the world imagined by Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale, and the biblical narrative regarding the four women through whose reproductive efforts the house of Israel had been built that served as the inspiration for Atwood's novel. This article argues that these trauma narratives, on the one hand, reflect the ongoing effects of systemic violation in terms of gender, race and class, but also how, embedded in these narratives there are signs of resistance that serve as the basis ofsurvival of the self and also of others.
There are many points of comparison between Ezekiel, writing in grief over the loss of his beloved Jerusalem and its temple, and Augustine, writing the City of God in grief over the devastation of his beloved Rome. This comparison gives us greater understanding of the heart, context, immediate audience and purpose of each writer. In addition, we discover that many idiosyncratic features of the book of Ezekiel may well be more fitting than we have realized for a grief-stricken community. Ezekiel, like Augustine, is not interested in merely comforting people in grief but in leading them forward, to take their eyes away from an earthly city to a future, eternal divine city.
A study of biblical lament psalms can help present-day sufferers express their own pain to God, and this can result in personal, social, and biological healing. In this empirical study, Zulu “pain-bearers” first studied Psalms 3 and 13 and then wrote and performed their own laments, using the biblical laments as a model. The use of poetic form is shown to have advantages over narrative therapy approaches.
The empirical compositions and performances fit with the insights gained from cognitive psychotherapy approaches as well as the therapeutic steps proposed by Judith Herman. Moreover, apart from facilitating healing of the soul and interpersonal relations, the research insights of Cozolino and others suggest that lament can stimulate the biological healing of the brain, allowing for the healthy processing of the trauma memories.
https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2019/v32n3a7
Resumen: El trabajo rastrea la metáfora maternal presente en el Déutero-Isaías ubicándola en un contexto dramático, para preguntarse por la función que cumple en la obra. Se realiza un recuento de las metáforas y su ubicación para analizarlas literaria y sincrónicamente. Se busca la relación entre las metáforas maternales y las otras metáforas aplicadas a YHWH y, finalmente, se pregunta por la función retórica y dramática de las mismas.
Palabras-clave: Metáfora. Maternal. Déutero-Isaías. Retórica. Dramática. Mujer. Madre. Esposa. Parturienta. Madre que amamanta.
The maternal metaphor applied to God in the Deutero-Isaiah
Abstract: The work traces the maternal metaphor in the Deutero-Isaiah, locating them in a dramatic context to ask about the function they fulfil in the book. We make a recount of the metaphors and their location in order to analyze them synchronously. We look for the relationship between the maternal metaphors and the other metaphors applied to YHWH, and finally, we ask ourselves about their rhetorical and dramatic function.
Key Words: Metaphor. Maternal. Deutero-Isaiah. Rhetoric. Dramatic. Woman.Mother. Wife. Parturient. Breastfeeding mother.
https://www.revistabiblica.com/ojs/index.php/RB/article/view/91
In this article dedicated to my esteemed colleague Fanie Snyman, I want to contribute to the fascinating field of the study of biblical literature and the hermeneutics of trauma. Instead of focussing on the more common reference to prophets such as Jeremiah who helped people cope with the traumatic experience of the Babylonian exile, I will pay attention to the very different message of Nahum to the Judeans who suffered under Assyrian tyranny. This prophecy is less popular and often condemned for the way in which it portrays YHWH as a violent god. This even seems to approve of, and therefore also incite sexual abuse of women. I will attempt to demonstrate that the trust in YHWH as both a good god and an avenger of the evil deeds of the Assyrians functions as a prerogative to restore the faith of the traumatized Judeans. The way in which YHWH's revenge is presented has an important function within this framework. Modern interpreters should be reluctant in criticizing it, because it can have a healing function in the specific situation of the traumatized.
Although the study of trauma has been common practice in several fields, biblical scholars have, since only a few years ago, used the concept of trauma as an important tool to interpret biblical texts. This article aims to provide a brief overview of the history of trauma studies in order to understand its impact on theology and biblical studies. The last section of the article focuses on trauma studies and the interpretation of prophetic literature.
Cambridge Core - Biblical Studies - Old Testament, Hebrew Bible - YHWH and Israel in the Book of Judges - by Deryn Guest
Drawing on recent insights from trauma hermeneutics, this article sets out to investigate the sharply divergent divine metaphors used by Jeremiah while being in prison (Jer 20). In this text, one finds Jere-miah saying in so many words that he hates God; that God had vio-lated him (Jer 20:7). However, in the same breath, he also confesses God to be the Liberator-Warrior God who delivers the needy from the hands of evildoers (Jer 20:11, 13). These divine metaphors that are rooted in contestation and contradiction reflect the deep-seated paradox of faith experienced by the prophet that quite likely also manifested in the people during the time of the Babylonian invasion and exile. In addition, this article explores the dramatic (re)descriptions of God in Jer 20 that supplement and challenge the more tradi-tional ways of speaking about God with equally contentious and con-tradictory images for God that emerged in communities experiencing severe trauma such as during the Holocaust as well as the forced removals during the Apartheid era in South Africa. I propose that new images for God that are marked by contradiction serve as a vital means to challenge traditional, often simplistic understandings of God in the name of God that is essential if God is going to survive together with the people.
This article seeks to investigate the rhetorical function of Jeremiah's Temple, Covenant and Sabbath Sermons against the backdrop of cultural trauma. I propose that the three sermons found in Jeremiah 7, 11:1-14 and 17:19-27 provide a good illustration of what is understood under the notion of cultural trauma according to which one or more of the public intellectuals of the time seeks to offer an interpretative framework that is focused on making sense of the calamity that threatened to destroy not only the community itself, but also everything they regarded to be sacred and true. By means of these three sermons, Jeremiah is reminding the people of Judah once again of the important tenets of their faith such as the Temple, the Covenant and the Sabbath as found predominantly in the Pentateuch. By 'preaching' on Judah's earlier traditions, the prophet reconstitutes these ancient customs in a new way in an attempt to rebuild the fractured community.
How can an academic voice concerning systematic-theological reflection find expression at a public university in a postapartheid SA? In this chapter, the different research foci of the members of the Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics at the UP are presented and interpreted as attempts to find such a voice as a collection of voices within a society characterised by shifting social-ecclesial and theological landscapes. The specific research foci, namely eco-hermeneutics; evolutionary perspectives on religious experience; an ethic of sociality within postcolonial, pluralist and unequal societies; and ecclesiological challenges and political theology are structured and presented in terms of the hermeneutical question that was posed by Ricoeur, namely D�o� parlez-vous? [Where do you speak from?]. Against the background of the vision, objectives and values of the Department, the main objectives of their respective approaches as explication of the �speaking from� and �speaking to� are outlined. Some of the most important contemporary issues are identified in a conclusion that are, according to them, to be addressed within the Southern African contexts.
In lieu of the centenary celebrations of the FT at the UP, this chapter takes a closer look at the Department of NTS. It does not only want to serve as a reflection on people and events that have led to the department's present. Making use of introspective examination focused on the Department's current position, task and impact, the chapter aspires to allow for the generation and evaluation of mental representations of possible futures. It thus anticipates exploring the history, work and impact of the Department of NTS at the UP, briefly by focusing on the variety of methods used by current members of the Department in their various research projects as well as the impact that these projects have and can continue to have. In doing so, the chapter demonstrates that the Department embraces a methodology which holds the diachronic and synchronous approaches in dialogue, thus pursuing a holistic approach. Through this continual pursuit of a holistic approach, the Department of NTS ensures a focus on the distinctive contribution that the NT offers – a better understanding of the dialectic between theological conceptualisations and historical reality.
In a short historical overview of the academic and social contributions of the Department of OTS at the UP over the past century (1917�2017), this chapter provides a limited picture of how the department has contributed to academia, church and society. In this year of the Faculty of Theology�s centenary celebrations, this chapter contemplates selected highlights of the past and intends to discover the avenues of future vistas through current academic strengths, research foci of personnel and the actualisation of the OT in the African context(s).From the inception of the UP in 1908, the Faculty of Humanities has been involved in OT related studies, namely the study of the Hebrew language. OTS has become known over many years through individual scholars� expertise regarding Bible translation and the foci on specific parts of the OT, namely the Pentateuch, Psalms, Prophets or Second Temple literature. World renowned projects started since 1990 to involve several international scholars. These include inter alia Pro Pent, Pro Psalms, Pro Prof and Qumran projects.Because the department is located at a FT in Africa, it has continuously strived to become theologically relevant for local and African contexts. The department continually envisions excellence and relevant
Any attempt at understanding religion proves to be a perilous undertaking. Understanding Religion Studies as it is envisioned to function in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the UP already implies some perils. To fathom the breadth of Religion Studies is like treading on a spider�s web: There are so many interconnected elements related to this field of study. The metaphor of a spider�s web is utilised to portray the interconnectedness of religion to other elements. Kobus Kr�ger�s concept of conditionality is utilised to describe this interrelatedness. There are many possible approaches to studying religion. This research highlights the anthropological, philosophical and sociological approaches. The relationship between religion and several other disciplines (i.e. education, law, science, politics and economy) is illuminated. Religion Studies at the UP should be aligned with the postcolonial demands for a particular way of doing research in Africa
In this contribution, the authors reflect on historical theology as theological discipline. The authors propose that historical theology be applied to different areas of research, namely prolegomena, history of the church, history of missions, history of theology, history of ecumenical theology or public theology and church polity. The point is made that historical theology, when properly structured and presented, could play a major role in enriching the theological and ecclesial conversation and in assisting the church in the process of reformation and transformation.
In her recent book, The Case for Mark Composed in Performance (2012), Antoinette Wire proposes that Mark's gospel was composed of accounts from people who retold Jesus' story over the decades, and not from scattered fragments by a single man. It seems that the first-century Jesus followers were well-acquainted with the death and resurrection story, because all four gospel traditions cover it, albeit with different emphases. Most previous scholarly discussions focused on the context, development, and oral circulation of the story (cf. Aitken 2004, 11). In my view, while these approaches are worthwhile, they do not address what I believe is the fundamental question, namely, how this story became a community story. In this article I use the cultural trauma theory to raise a different set of questions. Cultural trauma theory explores processes through which a story moves from being a particular incident to a point whereby it is represented as a collective trauma story. The theory focuses on social processes used to make listeners feel that they were attacked in a similar way. I adopted this theory after realising that Jesus' story began as a single event among many other similar stories. Thus, using cultural trauma theory, I explore how Jesus' tragic event became an experience that resonated with, or was felt as replicating, the experiences of many first-century Jesus followers.
In this book, Ron Eyerman explores the formation of the African-American identity through the theory of cultural trauma. The trauma in question is slavery, not as an institution or as personal experience, but as collective memory: a pervasive remembrance that grounded a people's sense of itself. Combining a broad narrative sweep with more detailed studies of important events and individuals, Eyerman reaches from Emancipation through the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, the New Deal and the Second World War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond. He offers insights into the intellectual and generational conflicts of identity-formation which have a truly universal significance, as well as providing a compelling account of the birth of African-American identity. Anyone interested in questions of assimilation, multiculturalism and postcolonialism will find this book indispensable.
Trauma theory offers us a different way of looking at 2 Cor 12:1–10, the passage that discusses Paul's “thorn in the flesh.” Rather than seeing the nature of the “thorn” as a riddle to be solved, we can look at the way Paul talks about his pain and his ability to come to terms with it as evidence of trauma and its resolution.
Traumas are purely happening which break a person or collective actor's sense of well-being. Cultural trauma is an experiential, scientific concept, signifying new meaningful and casual relationships linking earlier dissimilar events, structures, perceptions, and actions. In contrast to this, a new scientific concept enlightens an emerging field of social responsibility and political action. Cultural trauma transpires when the components of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to an awful event that leaves ineradicable marks upon their group awareness, marking their memories forever and changing their future individuality in basic and irreversible ways. In connection to the subject, cultural trauma, people have constantly used the language of trauma to explain what happened, not only to themselves, but also to the collectivities to which they belong.
The book of Jeremiah intervenes in a national disaster and moves the nation toward healing. The drama of the God's broken family helps survivors by presenting their experience in the narrowed domain of a family broken apart by infidelity. It reflects victims experience back to them in a way that does not retraumatize them. And in the chaos of disaster's aftermath, it provides an explanation of the cataclysm and defends God. No matter how difficult this theology might be for contemporary readers, the theology of Jeremiah's broken family enables the people of Judah to survive as the people of God.
The biblical book of Nahum may be the last book to which one would turn in time of national crisis due to a foreign attack. When read as a vengeance fantasy resulting from national trauma, however, facing Nahum's dire words against his enemy might provide readers with tools for self-reflection when national fantasies of vengeance arise in our own context.
Have the authors of the Book of Job traumatized this legendary character's contribution to what scripture says about God by inserting the words “for no reason” (Job 2:3) into the narrative? Is the Book of Job in and of itself a traumatizing witness to what life in relation to God means when the dust settles and the final accounts are tallied? As far as I can see, both questions are legitimate and requisite; neither yields to simple “Yes” or “No” answers.”
This sermon was preached at First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, on the Sunday morning immediately following the massacre of thirty-two Virginia Tech students in Blacksburg on April 16, 2007. This traumatic event?the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history?hit the church community hard. Many members are alumnae of Virginia Tech, had sons and daughters studying there now or in the past, and knew some of the victims and their families personally. The entire service focused on the tragedy. A particularly moving and meaningful segment featured a staff member's interview of a current Virginia Tech student who had come home. Whatever hope and comfort the sermon might have mediated owed in large measure to the sensitive and supportive congregation gathered for worship.
This sermon was preached in 2006 in the chapel of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond with a combination of students, faculty and staff in attendance. Although not preached on the exact day, this sermon was very much conceived in the spirit of World Aids Day. Living and working part of the year in South Africa, the topic of HIV/Aids is close to my heart.
This essay offers a theological analysis of trauma, recognizing the difficult questions posed by trauma, which indwells a person's or community's body long after the first traumatizing event(s) has passed. The research draws upon a case study, psychological trauma studies, and neuro-biology in dialogue with a fresh reading of Mark 5:25 – 34, the story of the hemorrhaging woman. The analysis concludes with theological constructs that are significant for understanding trauma and trauma-healing. These are: the importance of bodily encounter, the accent on Jesus' role as witness to radical suffering and healing, and the time-extensive nature of healing.
Cet article dresse un parallele entre la structure des Lamentations, qui laisse apparaitre cinq perspectives differentes sur le chagrin et la peine, et les travaux de la psychologue E. Kubler-Ross qui a beaucoup travaille avec des mourants. Cette lecture psychologique met en relief le presuppose theologique de la liberte divine et engage la justice de Dieu dans l'acceptation de la culpabilite humaine.
This article is a wide-ranging consideration of the role that contemporary academic psychology might play in the study of
the Bible. I begin by examining the historical reasons for suspicion of psychology within the community of biblical scholarship,
focusing on several perennial objections. Having addressed these objections, I go on to set out a framework for the legitimate
use of psychology in enhancing understanding of the process of production and reception of the biblical texts, and of elucidating
their meaning. Finally, I suggest that some contemporary methodological quality-control systems from psychology might inform
the question of what constitutes a good reading of a particular text. I explore this issue further by using the example of
trauma processing in relation to the New Testament, suggesting that if the text is to be received as transformative, a good
reading is likely to be dissonant, challenging, or ugly.
American Imago 56.2 (1999) 105-132
As Peter Homans (1989) develops Freud's theory of mourning into a theory of culture in The Ability to Mourn, he relates both its emergence and its structure to the processes of individuation and secularization in the modern West. He states:
I suggest that this understanding of the individual response to cultural change is not simply a theory applicable to the loss of an over-arching religious worldview in recent centuries in Europe and America, but a general theory of the loss of traditional culture, grounded in the stronger aspects of psychoanalytic theory concerning attachment, loss, and the permanence of memory, and subsequently smoothed out and enriched by object-relations psychology, sociology, and philosophy. Specifically, I anticipate that the approach to the individual and to culture through the psychoanalytic notion of object loss will be extremely fruitful in the clarification of the subjective experience and symbolism represented in the Book of Ezekiel.
Assuming the facts offered in locating this prophet in a setting -- his priestly lineage, his exile in Babylon -- to correspond to the situation of the original visionary to some appreciable degree, one must recognize Ezekiel's existence as an individual, one not simply highly religious and devoted to Yahweh but also devoted to the ultimate significance of law, temple rites, and nationalism in the traditions of Israel. This individual has been forcibly torn away from temple, nation, land, and tradition and sent into exile in a strange country with worship offensive to a priest of the Israelite God. Such a situation is surely inductive of cultural mourning, as understood by Homans:
It is appropriate to examine Ezekiel as a first-hand witness of one of the most significant events in world history, the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. The conquest, combined with the exile of the Judean social leadership -- including the priesthood -- forced a radical change in the Israelite worldview. Unlike some later apocalyptic literature, the Book of Ezekiel is not dependent on the tradition of the fall of Jerusalem and its Temple for its setting, but rather shapes that tradition as reality brings those very events into the midst of the Jewish people. In fact, more than half the book takes place between 592, five years after the first deportation, and the actual destruction of the Temple in 587. Thus while the prophet as an exile feels the loss of the two most important Zionistic structures already, the Temple in fact remains intact even as he envisions its destruction in Chapter...
This article explores the existence of theodic elements within the book of Lamentations. Drawing on the typology outlined by A. Laato and J. C. de Moor (Theodicy in the World of the Bible [Leiden, 2003]) it is identified that Lamentations explores both retributive and educative theodicy within its poems. Other theodic solutions are not, however, present. Although these theodic solutions are present, it cannot be argued that Lamentations constitutes a theodicy as such. Rather, the poems raise and in turn subvert a range of possible theodic assertions in response to the existential crisis which emerged in the wake of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
In this collaboratively authored work, five sociologists develop an ambitious theoretical model of “cultural trauma” and on this basis build a new understanding of how social groups interact with emotion to create new and binding understandings of social responsibility. Looking at the “meaning making process” as an open-ended social dialogue in which strikingly different social narratives vie for influence, the chapters outline a strongly constructivist approach to trauma and apply this theoretical model in a series of extensive case studies, including the Nazi Holocaust, slavery in the United ... More
In this collaboratively authored work, five sociologists develop an ambitious theoretical model of “cultural trauma” and on this basis build a new understanding of how social groups interact with emotion to create new and binding understandings of social responsibility. Looking at the “meaning making process” as an open-ended social dialogue in which strikingly different social narratives vie for influence, the chapters outline a strongly constructivist approach to trauma and apply this theoretical model in a series of extensive case studies, including the Nazi Holocaust, slavery in the United States, and September 11, 2001.
In this collaboratively authored work, five sociologists develop an ambitious theoretical model of “cultural trauma” and on this basis build a new understanding of how social groups interact with emotion to create new and binding understandings of social responsibility. Looking at the “meaning making process” as an open-ended social dialogue in which strikingly different social narratives vie for influence, the chapters outline a strongly constructivist approach to trauma and apply this theoretical model in a series of extensive case studies, including the Nazi Holocaust, slavery in the United ... More
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