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emilyholladay's review against another edition
4.0
Trauma and Grace is one of those books that will stick with me as I consider how to pastor congregations filled with people experiencing trauma, and those for whom trauma now filters the lens through which they view the world. Jones's insights on the cross and the Trinity in particular have unlocked new ways of understanding how God stands with us in our trauma and where we can find grace in the midst of our brokenness. The only thing I struggled with was the format - each chapter was essentially an article (the first part being articles she had written for previous publication) one a particular topic within the framework of trauma and/or grace. As such, I felt it either lacked cohesion at times or felt repetitive. This format, however, will likely make it a more helpful book to refer back to, as I can reference individual articles within the book rather than having to search the book as a whole.
noahbw's review against another edition
5.0
I appreciate that in this book, Jones conveys her own journey as both an academic and a Christian, weaving together people in her life and her own experiences with her profession as a Reformed and feminist theologian. I was particularly taken with her chapter on Calvin and the psalms, a theological resource I’m now interested in exploring further!
drbobcornwall's review against another edition
4.0
It was just a year ago that I read the first edition of Trauma + Grace. I wasn't reading it for review, so my reading might have been a little less focused than this time around with the second edition of the book. In recent years a growing number of theologians have explored the reality of trauma. It might be as a result of violence or severe illness (such as cancer). How might we believe in God in the context of trauma-producing events. In this case, how does trauma interact with grace? As Serene Jones, the author of this book notes in the introduction to this Second Edition, "The Bible is one long series of traumatic events and accounts of how people struggle to speak about God in the midst of them." (p. xi). Standing at the center of this story is the crucifixion and its effect on those who experienced with Jesus.
The author is Serene Jones, the President of Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is a member of a UCC congregation, but grew up in a Disciples of Christ home (her father is Disciples theologian [a:Joe R. Jones|381314|Joe R. Jones|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]). She is a Feminist theologian who engages with John Calvin and the Trinity.
This edition contains the original essays, some of which were new at the time and others had been published elsewhere. To this original core, is added a foreword written by Kelly Brown Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School, and a new introduction to the Second Edition, in which she resets the book. She writes that while her thinking from the earlier work hasn't changed, she is more aware of 1) "of the impact of collective traumas that get passed down from generation to generation." (p. xii). 2)She is "more aware of secondary trauma, or the effects of trauma on the lives of those who haven't directly undergone the trauma." (p. xiii). 3) she notes that she appreciates in a way she did not earlier the way in which "the different forms of violence I was describing have also been perpetrated against the earth itself" (p. xiv). With these new insights she has concluded that trauma studies are essential not only to the understanding of Scripture, but the theological task itself. This resource brings theology out of the realm of the abstract into the reality of our lives. It is in this context that she seeks to understand the grace of God.
The books is dived into three parts. Part 1 is titled "Traumatic Faith. She has chapters that delve into the concept of trauma and grace. There si a chapter that brings the Emmaus story into conversation with 9/11, and finally a chapter in which she engages with Calvin's Psalms as a means of pursuing healing.
This section is followed in Part 2, titled Crucified Beginnings, with three chapters exploring the cross. There is a chapter on the alluring cross, while brief, it invites us to consider why the cross, despite its repulsive nature calls out to us. From there we move to a chapter on "The Mirrored Cross," which moves to a more embodied conversation about the cross and its message to those experiencing trauma. In the mirrored cross, the cross reflects back to us our own suffering. Finally there is a chapter on the "unending cross." She points us to Mark, the gospel without an ending as a place to explore the connection of trauma and the cross.
In Part 3, she builds on what has gone before. It's titled "Ruptured Redeemings." She has a chapter on "sin, creativity, and the Christian life." There is a chapter on reproductive loss titled "hope deferred." Finally, there is a chapter on "Mourning and Wonder."
Throughout the book Jones weaves story of her own life, but more often of others she has encountered in life. She tells the story, as she walked with them. These are not disembodied stories. Their real life stories of people, mostly women, but not only women, who have experienced trauma and are seeking ways of remaining persons of faith, even as they seek healing grace.
To these nine chapters, Jones adds two new closing pieces. Both are conversations. The first is a conversation with Kelly Brown Douglas on the relationship of trauma and race. This conversation emerged out of a greater realization of the role that race plays in trauma, especially that trauma that is passed on from generation to generation. The closing piece is a conversation/interview of the author by David Maxwell, her editor at WJK Press. Issues of race figure here as well, though she speaks of other causes of trauma.
It is a compelling book. I think we often do theology in an abstract manner. Perhaps that's because much published theology is written by white/Euro-American men. While there are points of trauma we have experienced, especially in times of war (not my experience though), we do not deal with the same realities of trauma as a person of color. The one critique of this conversation is that Jones often speaks of "white people" in the abstract, as if, for instance, she's not a white woman. If whiteness is spoken in generalities, then it would important for her to own her own whiteness. It's not that what she shares is incorrect, it just seems disembodied.
Overall, this is an important contribution to our theological conversation, which brings concepts like the Trinity and sin out of the realm of the abstract into the realm of real life. That is the key to theology being of earthly value as well as heavenly value!
The author is Serene Jones, the President of Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is a member of a UCC congregation, but grew up in a Disciples of Christ home (her father is Disciples theologian [a:Joe R. Jones|381314|Joe R. Jones|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]). She is a Feminist theologian who engages with John Calvin and the Trinity.
This edition contains the original essays, some of which were new at the time and others had been published elsewhere. To this original core, is added a foreword written by Kelly Brown Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School, and a new introduction to the Second Edition, in which she resets the book. She writes that while her thinking from the earlier work hasn't changed, she is more aware of 1) "of the impact of collective traumas that get passed down from generation to generation." (p. xii). 2)She is "more aware of secondary trauma, or the effects of trauma on the lives of those who haven't directly undergone the trauma." (p. xiii). 3) she notes that she appreciates in a way she did not earlier the way in which "the different forms of violence I was describing have also been perpetrated against the earth itself" (p. xiv). With these new insights she has concluded that trauma studies are essential not only to the understanding of Scripture, but the theological task itself. This resource brings theology out of the realm of the abstract into the reality of our lives. It is in this context that she seeks to understand the grace of God.
The books is dived into three parts. Part 1 is titled "Traumatic Faith. She has chapters that delve into the concept of trauma and grace. There si a chapter that brings the Emmaus story into conversation with 9/11, and finally a chapter in which she engages with Calvin's Psalms as a means of pursuing healing.
This section is followed in Part 2, titled Crucified Beginnings, with three chapters exploring the cross. There is a chapter on the alluring cross, while brief, it invites us to consider why the cross, despite its repulsive nature calls out to us. From there we move to a chapter on "The Mirrored Cross," which moves to a more embodied conversation about the cross and its message to those experiencing trauma. In the mirrored cross, the cross reflects back to us our own suffering. Finally there is a chapter on the "unending cross." She points us to Mark, the gospel without an ending as a place to explore the connection of trauma and the cross.
In Part 3, she builds on what has gone before. It's titled "Ruptured Redeemings." She has a chapter on "sin, creativity, and the Christian life." There is a chapter on reproductive loss titled "hope deferred." Finally, there is a chapter on "Mourning and Wonder."
Throughout the book Jones weaves story of her own life, but more often of others she has encountered in life. She tells the story, as she walked with them. These are not disembodied stories. Their real life stories of people, mostly women, but not only women, who have experienced trauma and are seeking ways of remaining persons of faith, even as they seek healing grace.
To these nine chapters, Jones adds two new closing pieces. Both are conversations. The first is a conversation with Kelly Brown Douglas on the relationship of trauma and race. This conversation emerged out of a greater realization of the role that race plays in trauma, especially that trauma that is passed on from generation to generation. The closing piece is a conversation/interview of the author by David Maxwell, her editor at WJK Press. Issues of race figure here as well, though she speaks of other causes of trauma.
It is a compelling book. I think we often do theology in an abstract manner. Perhaps that's because much published theology is written by white/Euro-American men. While there are points of trauma we have experienced, especially in times of war (not my experience though), we do not deal with the same realities of trauma as a person of color. The one critique of this conversation is that Jones often speaks of "white people" in the abstract, as if, for instance, she's not a white woman. If whiteness is spoken in generalities, then it would important for her to own her own whiteness. It's not that what she shares is incorrect, it just seems disembodied.
Overall, this is an important contribution to our theological conversation, which brings concepts like the Trinity and sin out of the realm of the abstract into the realm of real life. That is the key to theology being of earthly value as well as heavenly value!
rwaringcrane's review against another edition
4.0
Accessible writing on difficult themes, and so I moved deliberately and slowly. Thoughtful and well researched while balanced with personal experience and the insight that comes from paying attention to and processing lived trauma—with a friend, a parishioner, and in the writer's own life.
When I began reading, my life was still untouched by the Covid-19 pandemic. And then suddenly, reading about trauma, both personal and communal, became more overwhelming. The urgency of the question: Who are we and how do we relate to one another in the midst of, as well as after, collective trauma? became much more pressing.
Each chapter/essay offered perspectives I found helpful and/or thought provoking. I continue collecting language for my current body of work based on personal trauma and stories I'm telling myself about those experiences.
Many lines from the final chapter Mourning and Wonder, are now inscribed in my journal. Here is a small sample:
"Grief is hard, actually the hardest of all emotions and perhaps most intolerable because its demands are so excruciating. It requires a willingness to bear the unbearable. As morning, it requires turning private agony into public, shared loss. If you can learn to truly mourn, then there is at least the possibility of moving on. Not because the would is mending or traumatic scars suddenly vanish... The gift of mourning is that fully awakening to the depth of loss enables you to at least learn, perhaps for the first time, that you can hold loss: you can bear terrors of heart and body and still see your way forward with eyes open. 163
When I began reading, my life was still untouched by the Covid-19 pandemic. And then suddenly, reading about trauma, both personal and communal, became more overwhelming. The urgency of the question: Who are we and how do we relate to one another in the midst of, as well as after, collective trauma? became much more pressing.
Each chapter/essay offered perspectives I found helpful and/or thought provoking. I continue collecting language for my current body of work based on personal trauma and stories I'm telling myself about those experiences.
Many lines from the final chapter Mourning and Wonder, are now inscribed in my journal. Here is a small sample:
"Grief is hard, actually the hardest of all emotions and perhaps most intolerable because its demands are so excruciating. It requires a willingness to bear the unbearable. As morning, it requires turning private agony into public, shared loss. If you can learn to truly mourn, then there is at least the possibility of moving on. Not because the would is mending or traumatic scars suddenly vanish... The gift of mourning is that fully awakening to the depth of loss enables you to at least learn, perhaps for the first time, that you can hold loss: you can bear terrors of heart and body and still see your way forward with eyes open. 163
kateraed's review against another edition
5.0
Such a helpful book! Each chapter points to an intersection between psychology and theology and offers a starting point that is so helpful for practical, lived, trauma-informed theology.
asimpson910's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
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