Trauma and Compassion Part 1
Sharing the most life-impacting research paper I've ever written
In the spring, I finished my last semester of regular doctoral coursework. I had two doctoral seminars, one on the epistle to the Hebrews from Dr. Amy Peeler and one called “Integration” that helps Wheaton PhD students integrate the fields of biblical studies and theology in their research. I also felt intensely drawn to study the impact of trauma on emotions, as an area of exploration for possible inclusion in my dissertation. To that end, I took a master’s level trauma counseling class and did a guided research on trauma in biblical studies, a growing subdiscipline. I wrote my two major research papers on trauma and emotions: my integration paper was about Compassion as the biblical response to traumatized people, and my Hebrews paper was about how Jesus and the author of Hebrews both reorient Fear of Death for traumatized people.
I had no idea at the time what a gift God was giving me through this research. Only God knew the trauma in my future, and I’m astounded at the gracious provision of knowledge God gave me before I needed it. I want to write more in the future about how doctoral work in theology and biblical studies can actually shape our character as followers of Jesus. I’m still stunned as the beauty of this truth begins to permeate me.
That integration paper, centered around the way Jesus teaches Compassion via parable, is so precious to me now. I’d like to share it with you, probably in three parts. I didn’t get a Substack out last week—my PTSD symptoms were particularly bad, especially an increasing depression—but I’ll be emailing you three times this week with edited-down sections of the paper.
Parable of the Good Samaritan by Domenico Fetti - Gallerie Accademia
THE EMOTION CONCEPT OF COMPASSION AS KEY TO A TRAUMA-INFORMED THEOLOGY
PART 1
Introduction
Traumatized people are a mission field, claims noted Christian trauma expert Diane Langberg. She bemoans the lack of attention many churches give to this population: “Sadly the body of Christ has often failed to see trauma as a place of service…I think a look at suffering humanity would lead to the realization that trauma is perhaps the greatest mission field of the twenty-first century.” [1] She calls for Christians to respond to traumatized people as Jesus did: “He did not numb or flee the atrocities of this world or of our hearts. Will we, his body, also leave our spaces, our chapels and enter the trauma of terrified and shattered humanity in the name of Jesus? We are complicit with the perpetrators if we refuse to see and enter in.”[2]
People carrying trauma into their churches make up a sizable portion of any congregation. Simply considering statistics on relational violence, a leading cause of trauma, it is reasonable to estimate that at least a quarter of any general population group has suffered some form of relational or sexual abuse.[3] Natural and human-made disasters and violence impact even more people. Yet this disabling force does not get much attention in theology, biblical studies, and pastoral care courses that might prepare scholars and pastors to better speak and write on this topic.[4] In a previous paper, I considered trauma-accessible churches,[5] while in this paper I will look at theology as a space needing trauma-educated reform. My intended audience for this message is the theologians and biblical scholars who train those who teach in Christian spaces: pastors, writers, and public speakers.
I integrate counseling psychology, emotion science, trauma-informed theology, and biblical studies in this paper. I begin by defining trauma and considering how compassion plays an important role in healing trauma. Then I examine how Luke’s Jesus teaches the emotion concept of compassion to his disciples as a proper response to encountering traumatized people. This discussion primarily focuses on the Good Samaritan, who is moved with compassion in Luke 10. By his example and direct teaching, Jesus shows his disciples that they can and should learn and cultivate compassion as a response to the suffering they witness in the world. Finally, I consider one approach to trauma-sensitive theology as an alternative to a more traditional systematic theology approach.
What is trauma?
Trauma is the human response to stressful events that overwhelm a person’s ability to cope. Collective events that can be traumatizing include human-made events such as terrorism, war, genocide, or mass shootings as well as natural events, like weather disasters, famine, or pandemics. Individual events that can be traumatizing include violent crimes, medical emergencies, bullying, systemic oppression such as racism and misogyny, and all forms of abuse.[6] Some people who experience such stresses will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Others will not, managing with their unique blend of external support and inner resilience to process and integrate the experience into their life narrative without developing psychological and physical symptoms. A one-time terrible event can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), while long-term neglect and mistreatment can result in Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), especially in a situation where a person feels trapped.[7] Some people have symptoms that do not rise to the diagnostic threshold for PTSD but still trouble them.[8]
The DSM-5, the most commonly used mental disorder diagnostic manual in the United States, includes seven diagnoses for trauma disorders. The two most important for this context are Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), which is diagnosed when symptoms have lasted less than 30 days from the precipitating event, and PTSD, in which symptoms have lasted for longer than 30 days. The DSM-5 does not include C-PTSD as a separate diagnosis, but it is included in the ICD-11, the WHO’s international classification of diseases.[9]
To receive a diagnosis of PTSD, a person must first have been exposed to a precipitating event: death, serious injury, or sexual violence, or threat of any of those, regarding themselves or another person. This is criterion A. Then they must re-experience the event, such as in flashbacks or nightmares (criterion B). They must exhibit avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event (criterion C). They must have negative thoughts or emotions as a result of the event (criterion D) as well as trauma-related reactivity such as trouble with regulating emotions, sleeping, and concentrating (criterion E). Finally, the symptoms must last more than a month (criterion F) and cause problems with their functioning in life (criterion G).[10]
The fields of counseling and social work have been slow to offer guidance and training mandates on trauma even though the effects of trauma have a significant impact on mental and emotional health.[11] Trauma education should be more prevalent in the preparation for people-helping professions, Levers writes: “Given the statistical probability that individuals will experience traumatic exposure during their lifetimes, it is the expectation rather than the exception that mental health clients will present with trauma histories.”[12] Church leaders should also take trauma awareness seriously. According to the VA, about 5% of the US population will be diagnosable with PTSD in any particular year. Because women are more likely to suffer some of the most traumatizing events like sexual assault and domestic violence, women have higher PTSD rates than men—8% of women and 4% of men will be diagnosable with PTSD during their lifetimes.[13] Given these statistics, it is likely that in a church of 200 people, 10 could be expected to have diagnosable PTSD in a given year. That number doesn’t include those who might have other trauma-aftermath disorders like ASD or C-PTSD. Nor does it include people who have experienced traumatizing events and have symptoms, such as emotional dysregulation, shaking, increased anxiety and depression, triggers and flashbacks, hypervigilance, an exaggerated startle reflex, and disruptions in relational connections, that are below the diagnostic threshold but who would also benefit from trauma-aware clergy and trauma-informed theology.
Our world, our churches, and our classrooms are full of humans, beloved by God, who carry such burdens in their bodies. Given the newer understanding of trauma now available, and an awareness of how many people in the church (and unchurched populations) carry trauma, I want to consider what a trauma-informed theology might look like, and how that might help us reach the mission field of traumatized people.
Part 2 coming on Wednesday.
[1] Diane Langberg, Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores, 1st Ed. (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2015), 8.
[2] Langberg, Suffering, 9.
[3] According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men experience sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime.” The statistics are hard to gather because abuse is so underreported, but adding up victimized men, women, and children, it is reasonable to estimate that at least a quarter of any general population group has suffered some form of relational or sexual abuse.
[4] SBL created a program unit on “Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma” in 2013. Only a handful of books and articles on trauma and biblical interpretation or trauma and theology have come out since 2012. For an overview of development in this field, see the introduction to Elizabeth Boase and Christopher G. Frechette, Bible Through the Lens of Trauma, 1st Ed. (Atlanta: SBL, 2016). The editors write on page 4, “There are, at present, three dominant threads informing biblical trauma hermeneutics: psychology, sociology, and literary and cultural studies. Psychology contributes to our understanding of the effects of trauma on individuals and on those processes that facilitate survival, recovery, and resilience. Sociology provides insights into collective dimensions of traumatic experience. Literary and cultural studies open pathways for exploring the role and function of texts as they encode and give witness to traumatic suffering and construct discursive and aesthetic spaces for fostering recovery and resilience.” This paper hopes to draw on the threads of psychology and literary studies to understand how trauma-informed theology could help heal individual trauma.
[5] In a paper for Theological Anthropology titled “Trauma as Disability: A Vision for the Trauma-Accessible Church,” I considered how a knowledge of traumatology could help church leaders make their services and communities accessible for people disabled by trauma disorders. I suggested several concepts church leaders should pay attention to when making their churches trauma-accessible: not controlling people, being sensitive to trauma triggers, offering trauma-informed pastoral care and referring out to licensed trauma counselors, and learning about institutional abuse and how to avoid perpetuating it. I also presented the results of a small ethnographic survey I did of people who left Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton because of the abuses, abuse coverups, initial trauma, and re-traumatization they encountered there in both the theology and actions of church leaders.
[6] Lisa López Levers, Trauma Counseling, Second Edition: Theories and Interventions for Managing Trauma, Stress, Crisis, and Disaster. (New York: Springer, 2022), 4.
[7] Judith Herman suggested the name for the C-PTSD diagnosis. One of the key demographics likely to develop C-PTSD are “survivors of some religious cults.” Any cult-like theology that makes people feel manipulated, coerced, or trapped in a religious system or institution or relationship with people or with God is a possible cause of C-PTSD. Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (New York: Basic Books, 2015), 121.
[8] Herman, Trauma and Recovery, 119.
[9] Levers, Trauma Counseling, 18.
[10] “VA.Gov | Veterans Affairs,” PTSD and DSM-5, accessed April 9, 2024, https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/essentials/dsm5_ptsd.asp.
[11] Levers, Trauma Counseling, 2.
[12] Levers, Trauma Counseling, 18.
[13] “VA.Gov | Veterans Affairs,” How Common Is PTSD in Adults?, accessed April 9, 2024, https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/common_adults.asp.