Moral injury arises from the violation of a human being’s core moral convictions. It can damage good character and wreck personal moral identify and beliefs. This injury may lead to feelings of meaninglessness, shame, and despair resulting in inner anguish, alienation, addiction, self-harm, and suicide. Moral injury is an emerging area of trauma studies in religion, which highlights complex ambiguities of betrayal and personal culpability among perpetrators and victims of violence. Work on moral injury insists that communities are crucial to repair and recovery.
Moral injury is the subject of some of the most difficult passages of the Bible, including war, rape, slavery, murder, adultery, toxic leadership, and betrayal. Together we will read stories in the Old and New Testament that examine suffering and betrayal. We will look at these tough scriptures to identify instances of moral injury and look for circumstances of repair, recovery and reconciliation, as well as the failure of recovery.
The class will start February 4, 2018, led by Angela Springfield, 9:45 – 10:45 a.m. in the Northminster Room—above the Chapel on the second floor of the Education Building. Donuts are offered in Parish Hall from 9:25 – 9:45 a.m.