Trauma, Compassion, and Community: Reconciling Opposites in the Interests of Post-traumatic Growth

Abstract

Post-traumatic growth is considered in relation to the pastoral care offered by Protestant Evangelical churches. Two significant ingredients to trauma response that risk being opposed to one another are explored: trauma as a uniquely individual experience and Christian compassion as effectual only as a communal practice. The phenomenon of trauma is outlined. Themes of thanksgiving and lament, friendship and presence are explored within the context of Evangelical church life. It is argued that an apparent disparity between trauma and compassion may be overcome through the appropriate praxis of Christian compassion as a communal phenomenon that seeks to provide the resources of worship and hospitality in the interests of the unique individual experience of the traumatized person.