“The Joseph Story: a Trauma-Informed Biblical Hermeneutic for Pastoral Care Providers”

Abstract

This article sits at the intersection of pastoral care and biblical studies. It draws from exegesis from the field of biblical studies, as well as trauma theory and a brief case study from pastoral care. This article exegetes the Joseph story (Genesis 37–50) alongside Judith Herman’s stages of recovery from trauma: safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection with ordinary life. Pastoral care providers often work with people for whom the Bible is an authoritative text. Therefore, they must be able to interpret the Bible through careful exegesis that helps rather than hurts these people. This article offers one way in which pastoral care providers might read a biblical text through the lens of trauma theory in order to facilitate a discussion about healing from familial trauma. Through this type of exegesis, a pastoral care provider might help a person see themselves in a biblical text about healing from trauma or even construct a trauma narrative about their traumatic experience.