The subtitle of Pound's book could have been 'Lacan with Kierkegaard'. It stages an extraordinary dialogue between the two thinkers, demonstrating the Kierkegaardian resonances of the key Lacanian concepts. From now on, we know that the Freudian notion of 'trauma', its sexual references notwithst anding, belongs to the domain of the divine. The book is a true event: after reading it, neither Kierkegaard nor Lacan will remain the same in our theoretical imaginary. You can ignore this book... if you want to remain a happy idiot." - Slavoj i ek "Marcus Pound's first book is the most important sustained reflection on the relation of Theology and Psychoanalysis to date. His approach is admirably focussed, since it compares the ideas of the theological founder of complex motivational psychology - Soren Kierkegaard - with those of the most sophisticated secular psychoanalytical theorist -Jacques Lacan. In doing so Pound offers, in a short compass, both a psychological deepening of theological orthodoxy and a theological critique of psychoanalysis as such. Future engagement with this area must begin with this lucid, subtle and brilliant treatise." - John Milbank "The vitality of Christian theology today, its creativity, its imaginative and scholarly engagement, are nowhere more evident than in this book. Pound's presentation of an interface between psychology and doctrine is as bold as it is original. Kierkegaard meets Lacan, trauma is related to liturgy and therapy to sacramentalism - all under the aegis of Aquinas! This is contemporary theology at its best - exploring new terrains and forging distinctive relations between onetime strangers." - Graham Ward

"From personal interviews with chaplains at the temporary mortuary at Ground Zero and her own experiences as an Episcopal priest, psychotherapist, and chaplain, Storm Swain offers a new model of pastoral care grounded in theology and practice. Reflecting on experiences of suffering faced in ministry, Swain considers what it means to love in these instances and what is involved in ministering in these contexts. Within this model, caregivers can move from a place of trauma to a place of transformation, which enables wholeness and healing for both caregivers and those for whom they care" -- Publisher description.

"It will not be easy at first to sense that God is a trauma, that 'the jungle fire-fight, the early morning rape, the speeding automobile of the drunk driver...may be God images if, like God, they create us in their image, after their likeness.' But little by little, this 'gnostic analysis' gets under the skin, & one begins to see, indeed, that 'whatever traumatises us becomes our parent' & our God, & that our religion has traumatised us by being 'religious kitsch,' covering our hurts. Greg Mogenson makes the point sensitively, therapeutically, & compellingly that 'the notion of salvation is eternally corruptible,' & that 'we need salvation from the very notion of salvation itself.' It may be as important for souls today to wrestle God as a Trauma as it was for Jacob to wrestle God's angel traumatically...& for the same reason!"--David L. Miller.

Trauma theory has become a burgeoning site of research in recent decades, often demanding interdisciplinary reflections on trauma as a phenomenon that defies disciplinary ownership. While this research has always been challenged by the temporal, affective, and corporeal dimensions of trauma itself, trauma theory now faces theoretical and methodological obstacles given its growing interdisciplinarity. Trauma and Transcendence gathers scholars in philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and social theory to engage the limits and prospects of trauma’s transcendence. This volume draws attention to the increasing challenge of deciding whether trauma’s unassimilable quality can be wielded as a defense of traumatic experience against reductionism, or whether it succumbs to a form of obscurantism. Contributors: Eric Boynton, Peter Capretto, Tina Chanter, Vincenzo Di Nicola, Ronald Eyerman, Donna Orange, Shelly Rambo, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Hilary Jerome Scarsella, Eric Severson, Marcia Mount Shoop, Robert D. Stolorow, George Yancy.

For more than one hundred years, North American Christians have been choosing one of two stories about the gospel of Jesus Christ. One story, often referred to as the "true gospel," holds forth a narrative that this world is a "sinking ship" without possibility of redemption. For adherents to the "true gospel," human suffering in this life is mostly a distraction to be ignored, for all that truly matters is to "win souls for Jesus" so that as many as possible can be assured of eternal life. The other story, known by many as the "social gospel," holds that the gospel of Jesus promises a new beginning in this life that includes the possibility for abundant life in this present world. Followers of this story devote themselves to alleviating human suffering and working for charity and peace. Prior to the Civil War, these two stories--of salvation in this life and salvation in the life to come--were one, never to be separated, together comprising the good news of Jesus Christ. When the Roll is Called recounts the traumatic tearing asunder of this beautiful good news and offers hope for the restoration of a whole gospel.

In this posthumous volume Jill Anne Kowalik analyzes pathological grief in 17th and 18th-century Germany. Early chapters outline the methodological prerequisites and the main theoretical underpinnings for her multidisciplinary study of mentality and give an overview of the theories and practices of consolation in the Western tradition. She traces the origins of pathological grief to the trauma of the Thirty Years War, and analyzes mourning practices as evidenced by funeral sermons for their punitive theological content. Rather than helping, these practices actually intensified the trauma of loss. The second part of the volume addresses the work of German writers such as Moritz, Nietzsche, Freud, and Goethe for their psychologically acute depiction of the effects of pathological mourning.

An interdisciplinary discussion of traumatic experience seeks better understanding and care for the suffering of individuals and societies