The Need for a Trauma-Informed Lutheran Theology

A Case Study on Lutheran Study Bibles

Abstract

This article examines how Lutheran Study Bibles published by the ELCA, LCMS and WELS address the sexual assaults of Dinah and Tamar, Lot’s decision to offer his daughters to be raped, the sexual exploitation of Bathsheba, as well as other accounts of trauma. In applying a commonly accepted definition of “trauma-informed,” the author shows the need for writers and publishers of Lutheran Study Bibles to develop a deeper understanding of trauma and to write more sensitively on topics that can be triggering to readers who have experienced sexual assault. Unless seminaries develop trauma-informed theologians, clergy and Bible scholars will continue to misunderstand and wrongly apply God’s word to those who have endured and those who have inflicted trauma.