Trauma and Christianity

Traumas, or tragedies, happen to all people. Sometimes these traumas come from outside a person, inflicted by the will or carelessness of others, and other times a person creates problems for herself that she must then deal with. One must also understand that God allows traumas, either to weaken a person or to reveal her own weakness. Only when her weakness is revealed in herself can God's strength be then revealed in that person.

Roy Clements begins by referring to the Apostle Paul's life story in the second epistle to the Corinthians, noting that in defending his leadership as an apostle he does not shy from the problems, opposition, and persecution he endured as a direct result of evangelizing (15). Part of that Clements gives a background to, explaining that Greek heroes never are handicapped or ill, and Jews even saw illness as a sign of God's disfavor (17). This leads to the paradox of the Christian walk: "When I am weak, I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). Not only those Jews who, like Paul, had strict training in God's law, but especially Gentile, Christians must endure disciplined training so that the Holy Spirit in them can be manifest. Christians need to learn to get themselves out His way.

Therefore, when bad things happen to good people, the Christian must remember that there are no good people, oneself included: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Things are thus "bad" or "good" only when seen from God's view: "Woe unto th

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"great physician." However, "studies have generally not found significant differences between 'religious' and 'nonreligious' groups of people in terms of their vulnerability to depression" (32). This means either that Christians are equal to the lost in vulnerability to depression or that Christians are equal to the unsaved in likelihood of going to the Holy Spirit for help. Mel Lawrenz and Daniel Green also address depression, but from a different aspect, revealing its alignment with grief and mourning, noting "many similarities" but adding that "one salient difference is the focus of the mourner's experience. Healthy grief focuses on the loss while depression tends to be more diffuse, less well-defined" (99). Anger is likewise more focused in grief, less so in a depression, and mourners will talk to others while depressed people will not. These are the differences between emotions and selfishness. "Chronic mourning" likewise appears selfish, almost like an effort to control the loss, which will "alienate others or become a means by which the mourner gathers attention or support" (100). Lawrenz and Green's suggestion for treatment of trauma, again, begins with the Bible: "To put it another way, the pastoral counselor is letting

Category: Philosophy - T