Body-Wise: Re-Fleshing Christian Spiritual Practice in Trauma’s Wake

Abstract

Though Christian Theology profess a God who inhabits flesh, bodies have been historically and systematically ignored and reviled by many institutional expressions of this faith tradition. Even as many core Christian institutions resist the Incarnational symmetry between embodied practice and Christian theological professions, bodies explore and embrace healing modalities at the margins of Christian practice. Using the emerging wisdom of four particular healing explorations along the margins of Christian institutional life, this chapter explores the contours of Christian spiritual practices that fold out of trauma. By focusing on the institutional practices of Kevin Ladd with labyrinths, Shelley Rambo with the Warriors Journey Home project, Sr. Joanna Walsh with trusting touch, and my own Wandering Home Retreat for women, this chapter attends to these contours with an eye toward possibilities for institutional transformation around trauma.