Trauma-informed Engagement with Scripture
Trauma-informed
Engagement with Scripture
WORKSHOP
Join us for an interactive workshop
on Zoom @ 5:00-7:00 pm Pacific Time, April 13, 2023
We'll be exploring what trauma studies brings to our understanding of ancient stories and poems, and how trauma awareness can equip us to engage with each other around scripture in wholistic and healing ways.
Registration is $25 and provides access to the live, interactive workshop and accompanying material, including resources for further reflection and conversation following the workshop.
Register HEREResources
Check out some recent blog posts exploring trauma-informed engagement with scripture:
Trauma-informed Engagement with Scripture, Part 1
An exploration of how trauma-informed engagement with scripture 1) recognizes the Bible as trauma literature, 2) acknowledges the ways the Bible has been used to inflict trauma as well as to heal trauma, and 3) holds space for the multiplicity of human experience present in group engagement with texts.
Trauma-informed Engagement with Scripture, Part 2
If trauma is what happens in us as a result of what happens to us, what makes the difference between potentially traumatizing situations or experiences that we are able to integrate into our understanding of how life works, and those we cannot?
An Interlude for Joy
In this post, Jody Washburn explores how practicing joy is an important part of healing, and shares about hearing Father Gregory Boyle tell a story a homie had told him about his mom visiting him in detention. Reflecting on the story, Boyle mused, "that sounds a lot like God—can’t take her eyes off her kids, and pulls warm burritos out of her bra at just the right times.”
Trauma-informed Engagement with Scripture, Part 3
We only remember so many of the millions of moments that make up our lives. Memories involving scripture—whether a physical object, a phrase or poem or story, or even an assertion backed by the authority of the Bible—often involve changed connections, with ourselves, with others, and with the world we inhabit. In this post, Washburn argues for love before understanding.
Trauma-informed Engagement with Scripture, Part 4
Shame, described by Gershen Kaufman as a “piercing awareness of ourselves as fundamentally deficient,” is universal, a part of being human. Because of this, and because of how closely tied sacred texts and religious community can be to identity, I think consideration of the intersections between shame and authority and trauma are particularly relevant in spaces where people gather around scripture.
