Bearing the Unbearable

Trauma, Gospel, and Pastoral Care

Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781467443937
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christlicher Dienst

A Christ-centered approach to dealing with trauma on both a personal and a communal level Traumas abound. Post-traumatic stress disorder, emotional and sexual abuse, unbearable anxiety and fear, and a host of other traumas afflict people everywhere. In this book Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger weaves together threads from the fields of psychology and pastoral theology as she explores the impact of trauma on people's lives and offers practical strategies and restorative practices for dealing with it. Not only a teacher of pastoral theology but also an experienced pastoral counselor herself, Hunsinger draws on the resources of depth psychology, including object relations theory, trauma theory, family systems theory, nonviolent communication, and restorative circles. She then places her findings in a Christian theological context, emphasizing God's work in and through Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection, to present a cohesive, faith-based vision for healing.

Chapter 1

Bearing the Unbearable

Trauma, Gospel, and Pastoral Care

Traumatic loss lies at the very heart of the Christian imagination. The souls of those who call themselves Christian are indelibly stamped with the unbearable sorrow of this man, Jesus. After raising the hopes of many, Jesus died a shameful death, indeed an unjust and horrible death. What is more, his friends denied, betrayed, and abandoned him in his hour of need. He was tortured and executed as a common criminal, even though he had done nothing to warrant condemnation. Jesus Christ drank the cup of bitterness all the way to its dregs, and descended into the very depths of hell: How can such a terrible story be borne? Much more than an intellectual puzzle about so-­called theories of atonement is at stake here. Believers who have survived trauma stake their very lives on the power of the gospel to heal.

Trauma: How can we give it the kind of disciplined attention that it deserves? Holding even a fraction of this suffering steadily in our attention can be challenging. Is it possible to talk about trauma without causing pain to those already bearing trauma in their bodies and souls?1 Daily through the media, we are bombarded with stories capable of breaking our hearts, yet little attention is given to the impact of such accounts on their hearers. How can we bear these stories with an open heart?2 Indeed, how do we bear them at all?

Pastoral theology, as I understand it, is first and foremost a theology of God’s care for the world in Jesus Christ, in which we are invited to participate.3 This means that all pastoral care depends upon prayer, leads to worship, and trusts in the promises of God. Such an orientation leads us to confess that though we ourselves, with our enduring failures to love, cannot truly redeem traumatic loss, we cling in hope to the One who can and does. That One drank the cup of bitterness, died a death of anguish, and descends into every darkness that threatens to overwhelm us.

Those who study theology are called to ponder holocausts of every kind, from biblical “texts of terror,”4 to grueling historical or theological tracts, to the horrors of the evening news. How can we fortify ourselves, our students, or our children for the kind of world we live in? Whether painted on a vast canvas of national or international significance, or in a miniature of a single family or community, traumatic loss is ubiquitous. When it hits us personally, it changes our lives irrevocably: through the shock of an accident, a criminal assault, or a tragic death, or through the multiple and complex traumas that arise in relation to immigration, war, imprisonment, torture, domestic violence, or sexual abuse, among others. Unacknowledged and unhealed, trauma often leads to further violence, either against oneself or against others, and thus to more trauma. With knowledgeable intervention and wise support, however, trauma can be healed, and may even become “a catalyst for growth and transformation,”5 the turning point of a life, a sign and symbol of God’s goodness and care.

As caregivers in the church who seek to help others, how can we be sure that we will first do no harm? How can we be a source of spiritual strength and practical support for the communities we serve? Moreover, as witnesses to the trauma of others or as persons afflicted by trauma ourselves, where do we turn for help? In this chapter, I want to set forth an understanding of the impact of trauma and inquire into the role of the gospel and the church in its healing. I plan to address three basic issues:

• What is trauma and how does it affect us?
• How do we break free from the vicious cycle of trauma’s impact?
• How does the gospel with the pastoral care of the church bring healing to the traumatized?

What Is Trauma and How Does It Affect Us?

The twentieth century offered countless opportunities for studying trauma, but it was not until the 1970s that social and political ferment enabled its study to advance decisively.6 By the mid-1970s, hundreds of “rap” groups had been organized by Vietnam Veterans against the War where men could speak honestly about the horror of war. At the same time, women gained collective courage as they shared, among other things, their stories of rape, sexual abuse, or domestic violence. No longer willing to allow “denial, secrecy and shame”7 to render them mute, both men and women were able to transform what had previously been private suffering into powerful public action for social and political change. In the 1970s and 1980s, crisis centers, rape hotlines, and safe shelters were established with painstaking effort in state after state.8

At the same time, the Veterans Administration commissioned thorough studies of the war’s impact on returning Vietnam vets.9 Subsequently, a “five-­volume study on the legacies of Vietnam . . . demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt [the] direct relationship [of trauma] to combat exposure.”10 With multiple vectors for social change converging, the American Psychiatric Association included a new diagnosis in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for 1980 called post-­traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In their first attempt to capture its essence, psychiatrists described traumatic events as lying “outside the range of usual human experience,”11 a definition that proved untenable since traumatic incidents of one kind or another are quite common.12 As psychiatrist Judith Herman writes: “Traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life.”13 In fact, a simple thumbnail definition of trauma might be: “an inescapably stressful event that overwhelms people’s coping mechanisms.”14 When people face “intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and the threat of annihilation,”15 and when these feelings persist for more than a month, PTSD becomes the chosen diagnosis.16 Witnesses to horrific events are also vulnerable to trauma. Watching helplessly as a loved one dies, seeing the Twin Towers fall to the earth, or listening in fear as one’s mother or sibling gets beaten — such events can trigger a traumatic reaction.17

The subjective experience of feeling overwhelmed uniquely characterizes trauma and differentiates it from those situations that are experienced, perhaps, as exceptionally stressful but not as traumatic. Peter Levine elaborates: “Traumatized people . . . are unable to overcome the anxiety of their experience. They remain overwhelmed by the event, defeated and terrified. Virtually imprisoned by their fear, they are unable to re-­engage in life. Others who experience similar events may have no enduring symptoms at all. . . . No matter how frightening an event may seem, not everyone who experiences it will be traumatized.”18 The imponderable factor here is that the nature of the triggering event in and of itself does not guarantee a traumatic reaction.19 One person may experience the event as traumatic while her neighbor, friend, or daughter experiencing the exact same event may find it stressful, but not traumatic. This fact remains completely inexplicable until we realize ...