Trauma-Informed Theology or Theologically Informed Trauma?

Abstract

In this article I first provide an overview of the ways in which trauma impacts people’s understandings and experiences of God, then survey two works of “trauma-informed theology” to demonstrate how these approaches to theology can lead to diminished views of God and turn theology into anthropology, and, finally, propose an approach to trauma and theology that maintains a theocentric theological method that affirms the subjective experiences of traumatized individuals while not advancing diminished understandings of God. It is the triune God revealed in Scripture that wipes away the tears of trauma survivors and this God alone who comforts and heals humanity.