Redeeming narratives in Christian community

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which the Church can be a community that fosters, nurtures and listens for alternative narratives of redemption, particularly with those who have experienced trauma and abuse. It demonstrates the necessity of holding together a psychological understanding of the particularities of human suffering within the redemptive arch of the gospel in Christian community. The chapter also explores the broader relationship between personal narratives of trauma and abuse, and metanarratives of redemption. The notion of the storied nature of identity has received considerable attention in the human sciences in the last three decades. This framework presumes human lives are cultural texts and that story or narrative is the vehicle through which humans organize events, actions and prescribe meaning to actions. The chapter suggests the necessity of holding together the larger narrative of redemption with smaller stories that are located much closer to the precariousness of human existence.