Bearing Witness: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Christian Ethics

Abstract

Abstract: Trauma-informed Christian ethics seeks to expose and redress patterns of systemic patriarchy and racism, leveraging privilege in solidarity with trauma survivors. Drawing on trauma studies and feminist theology and ethics, particularly the relational theology of Marjorie Suchocki and the defiant and resistance ethics of Traci West, this article presents bearing witness to victim-survivors as a liberative moral act spanning the range from compassion to politics. It begins with a discussion of traumatic ruptures and humanity’s unique ability to transcend violence. Bearing witness is then described in four perspectival moments, correlated to distinct modes of transcendence, moral themes, and practices paralleling stages of trauma recovery and trauma-informed response. From a recognition of human dignity to political activism, bearing witness provides persons of relative privilege a process for joining in solidarity with survivors of trauma, enabling new liberative practices in the current era of multiple and intersecting social and personal traumas.