Implications of Historical Trauma for Biblical Interpretation

Resilience in Scripture and Community Life

Abstract

In this piece, I develop some implications of historical trauma research for biblical interpretation, including how we engage biblical literature in community. I first define historical trauma, and then explore its applications for macro-level interpretation and application of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Using the concept of narrative resilience from historical trauma research, the Hebrew Bible is reframed as a meta-discourse that arose from Jewish experiences of colonization. Finally, the diversity of voices implicit to narrative resilience leads to praxis-oriented suggestions for communal biblical interpretation.