You Tube Theology

This seminar took place on Thursday 8 December 2016, 4.30-6pm in Seminar Room B
(D/TH004, Dept. of Theology & Religion, Abbey House, DH1 3RS, Durham)

ABSTRACT:
The lens of trauma has a curiously destabilising effect. When one begins to consider traditional Christian narratives through the lens of trauma, and in particular through the traumatised bodies of survivors of trauma, one discovers that this lens of trauma is a disruptive lens. Narratives, viewed through this lens, are oddly blurred, out of focus, incomprehensible. This lens of trauma often requires the reconstruction of a narrative in order to bring it into clear view. I argue that when one considers a traditional narrative of redemption through the lens of trauma, one cannot persist in telling the same story—such a story no longer has credibility—rather one must construct a new narrative.

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BIOGRAPHY:
Karen O’Donnell is the research fellow in Digital Pedagogy with the CODEC Research Centre for Digital Theology. She recently completed her PhD at the University of Exeter with a thesis entitled “Somatic Memory: Trauma and the (Eucharistic) Body”. Karen has published research on trauma and theology and is currently undertaking a research project with military chaplains looking at the production of liturgy in the trauma of battle.