Abstract
This paper explores the soteriological differences in two Christian theological systems and their usefulness in supporting recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD an anxiety-trauma disorder, and moral injury, a disruption of moral conscience and collapse of a person’s moral foundations. The first system, a first-millennium soteriology based in incarnation and resurrection, grounded systems of penance that were required of warriors to restore their souls. The second, based in atonement ideas that emerged in the eleventh-century with the crusades in Europe, constructed a meaning system of redemption that sanctified war and traumatic suffering and eventually abandoned penance for warriors. It is the argument of this paper that atonement theology reenacts and reinforces trauma rather than supporting recovery from trauma and human well-being.
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Notes
- 1.
See Bremner 2011 for a comparison of MRI images of brains with and without PTSD. He notes that intense fear impairs ‘the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory, as well as in the handling of stress’ and its partner, ‘the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that regulates our emotional response to fear and stress.’
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Graybiel (2008) discusses preliminary research on neuroplasticity and the power of rituals that influence ‘social, emotional, and action functions of the brain’ (359).
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Brock, R.N. (2016). Post Traumatic Stress, Moral Injury, and Soul Repair: Implications for Western Christian Theology. In: Evers, D., Fuller, M., Runehov, A., Sæther, KW. (eds) Issues in Science and Theology: Do Emotions Shape the World?. Issues in Science and Religion: Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26769-2_3
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