Trauma theory and embodiment in the Old Testament
Reflections from ancient Israel to today’s theology classroom.
“We in the West basically boil memory down to factual recall or lack thereof,” says Dr. Megan Roberts, but that’s not what most biblical authors mean when they say “remember.” Roberts teaches the Old Testament at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta. When she first started her research into memory, she was struck by the repetition of memory language around Sabbath keeping. Then she noticed that the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy and Isaiah also carried remarkable density in memory language.
Here are two examples from Isaiah: “Remember these things, Jacob, for you, Israel, are my servant. I have made you, you are my servant; Israel, I will not forget you” (Isa. 44:21). Similar language occurs in Isaiah 46: “Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.”
Roberts says that for the ancient Israelites, memory language was always “deeply embodied and deeply emotional, and was intrinsically linked to identity.”
“Yahweh did not enact his great acts of redemption like the Exodus and the Wilderness Wanderings for every generation, but instead invited his people of each new generation to live within the realities of the redemption Yahweh had already established through those great events,” writes Roberts in a paper on the book of Micah.
Trauma and memory
Roberts is not a licensed trauma therapist; however, she has applied trauma theory in her work. She says biblical scholars, theologians and ministers should study the effects of trauma in Old Testament accounts to get a holistic interpretation of the biblical text and its application to current human experiences.
Many in North America have never experienced the level of trauma experienced by our neighbours around the globe, so I asked Roberts if she had any thoughts on the current conflict in the Middle East.
“Tragically, most of our communities seem to think that simply pointing out who is ‘right’ or who is ‘wrong’ will somehow solve the matter. Nothing about this conflict or any conflict involving anyone is black and white,” laments Roberts. She urges Christians to “desperately pray for healing from trauma on both sides, both for Israel and Palestine.”
Relevance of the OT
Roberts sometimes faces the challenge of helping students recognize the relevance of the Old Testament to our present day. She hopes that, after taking her courses, students will know and understand that the good news of Jesus first arrived in Genesis and is carried throughout the biblical text and into our lives.
Christian artist and speaker Scott Erickson puts it this way, “What does it say about a God who is willing to be this present with us? A God who is everywhere at once, yet who has been present with humanity in a box (ark of the covenant), in a body (skull and heart), in a blessing (cup and cross), and in our very breath.”
Erickson suggests, along with Roberts, that embodiment is central to the gospel. In my own journey as a theology student, I have come to understand that embodiment is about loving myself and others into life, which includes all of our complex, nuanced and messy human experiences. Thanks to the mystery of divine presence among us, restorative healing for collective and individual memory becomes possible.
