TRAUMA is an experience that “overwhelms the ordinary human adaptations to life” (Herman, 1992). Such an experience occurs in response to an event or a series of events, but it is not the event itself. That is an important distinction, because it helps us to understand why two people could go through the same thing and only one of them experience trauma in response to it. It also means that we cannot know which events will or will not trigger such a response in a person.
There are, of course, medical criteria for diagnosing things like PTSD. In the field of trauma theology, we are not medics making a diagnosis, but, rather, theologians seeking understanding of scripture, doctrine, and people, in the light of the experiences of trauma: experiences that are, sadly, all too common in our societies. You are, therefore, less likely to see theologians drawing on these medical criteria in their work, and more likely to see them drawing on the rich field of trauma studies, which encompasses sociology, history, literary, and cultural studies.
WHY does theology need to think about trauma? Anselm described theology as “faith seeking understanding”. Many trauma theologians start their work out of their own experiences of trauma, seeking to understand their faith in the light of their experience. This was certainly true for me. Not only does utilising trauma as a lens to read scripture, or as a way of thinking through doctrine, enable richer and more nuanced theologies, but, in a world in which so many are traumatised, theologians have a responsibility to articulate theologies that do justice to such experiences.
I started my doctoral work in the area of trauma theology in 2013. At the time, I was aware of only a couple of other theologians working in this area in the UK, and a small handful in the United States. After 9/11, the theologian the Revd Dr Serene Jones began to think about how she taught theology in the aftermath of trauma. Drawing on work that was being done in Literary Studies, Dr Jones and her doctoral students began to apply similar frameworks and lenses to their theological work. One such student was Shelly Rambo, whose work would go on to be considered groundbreaking and essential in the field. Significantly, these early years of trauma theology were largely dominated by women scholars — rare in the world of theology.
Since I began my work, this field of theology has grown exponentially, and it is not hard to understand why. Even before the global experience of a pandemic that overwhelmed the ordinary coping mechanisms of so many, being brought face to face with death, catastrophic climate change, mass shootings, war, sexual abuse, domestic violence, racism, and more have made trauma a common part of modern life. Trauma theologians are working in all these areas.
BIBLICAL scholars, particularly those working in the Hebrew Bible, have found the lens of trauma particularly illuminating. Reading biblical texts such as Job or Lamentations — and even the Psalms — through this lens helps to make richer sense and deeper meaning of both the text and the ways in which it can be read today. Ericka Dunbar, for example, reads the book of Esther through a trauma-informed lens of sex trafficking to produce a reading that brings to the fore overlooked elements of the text, and that speaks to contemporary experiences in the African diaspora.
Interestingly, far less work of this nature has been done in dialogue with the New Testament. It has been suggested that some of Paul’s writings would benefit from a trauma-informed reading, but not many theologians have attempted this. Without trying to diagnose ancient characters with trauma, other scholars (me included) have wondered what it might mean if the followers of Jesus at the foot of the cross experienced trauma responses after Jesus’s death. What might this indicate about the life of the Early Church? Could we imagine Jesus himself as one who has experienced trauma? Such questions need much more exploration.
IN THE field of trauma theologies, a range of themes and questions have exercised scholars. At the forefront of this field has been the work of the aforementioned American theologian Dr Rambo. Her theological work on Holy Saturday has proved significant in the field. She argues that many Christians rush from the crucifixion to the resurrection too quickly, and overlook — theologically, liturgically, and pastorally — Holy Saturday. It is Holy Saturday, when death and life are mingled, boundaries are blurred, and there is not yet the hope of Easter Day, which tells us something of the experience of trauma.
Alongside this, there has been consistent interest by trauma theologians in the eucharist. Like trauma, the eucharist is centred on themes of bodies and memories. It is something that we repeat and return to, much like a trauma memory that has not yet been integrated. These similarities have prompted theologians to argue that the eucharist itself might contain within it trauma elements, or that it might be a place for post-traumatic remaking of the self. In recent years, eco-theologians such as Dr Tim Middleton have drawn on trauma theologies to think about issues such as mass extinction and catastrophic climate change.
THESE trauma-informed approaches in biblical studies and theology have been further worked out in the area of pastoral care. In the past 20 years, and particularly since the worldwide experience of Covid, more theologians have turned their attention to thinking about what trauma both means and demands of us in relation to pastoral ministries and spiritual care.
Dr Jennifer Beste’s work on how the experience of trauma de-forms sexual abuse survivors’ image of God and capacity to accept God-given grace is one such example. The Revd Dr Stephanie Crumpton’s work on Black women’s experiences of violence and pastoral care put both Black women and the Black church centre stage, and highlights the importance of intersectionality when attending to experiences of trauma.
The “Tragedies and Congregations” project (University of Exeter) brought training on trauma-informed ministry to many ordinands and dioceses, as well as a ground-breaking volume of essays under the same name. My own work on spiritual practices for trauma survivors takes seriously the recognition that trauma can have spiritual effects, and that paying attention to the body is essential in doing the work of post-traumatic remaking. There is much work still to do here in making training on trauma-informed ministry available as widely as needed, in both local and national contexts.
This flourishing field of theological study is still relatively new, but finding far-reaching impact as it resonates with so many people’s experiences and enables rich and powerful encounters with scripture and theology. So far, trauma theologies have been dominated by white Western scholars, but more work is being done to decolonise the field and pay attention to intersectional experiences of trauma. It is still a field of theology in which women largely lead. My hope is that this field will continue to flourish and produce life-giving theologies.
Dr Karen O’Donnell is Academic Dean at Westcott House, Cambridge, where she teaches liturgy and trauma theology. She is also an affiliated lecturer at the Cambridge University Divinity Faculty, where she teaches gender and theology. Her most recent publication is Survival: Radical spiritual practices for trauma survivors (SCM Press, 2024).
