Welcome to the fourth episode of our series on trauma and theology and today we are expanding on the idea that as theology has been impotent to help individuals heal from trauma, it is also complicit in the collective trauma of marginalized groups, our nation and our planet.

My hope is that for the scores of Christians who have never considered how the trauma caused by religion is harming us collectively that this might spark curiosity to think deeper.

Philip Hayes, working towards of Theology an Culture

Holly Greenidge, working towards a Master’s of Divinity

5:45 Definition of collective & historic trauma

12:15 The theological roots that perpetuate collective trauma

15:00 Trauma is embedded in the Biblical narrative

22:00 “whiteness” as collective trauma

27:00 America is where cultures go to die

34:40 What do we do with the exceptionalism of the creation story?

44:20 What does it feel like to lose your culture?

51:00 Is there a solution

• A Different Mirror: A history of multicultural America by Ronald Takaki.

• Exclusion and Embrace, by Miraslav Volf

• Grammar of God by Aviya Kushner

• Holy Resilience by David Carr

• Inspired by Rachel Held Evans

• Longing for Running Water by Ivone Gebara

• My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem.

• The History of White People by Nell Painter

• Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah.

• Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining by Shelly Rambo

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