Re-embodying Pastoral Theology: Ritual Care for Moral Injury in Veterans

With the dominance of psychotherapeutic theories and methods in the field of Pastoral Theology, the typical pastoral encounter has been understood to be a private conference in which a pastor addresses a sufferer’s thoughts and emotions. What results is a kind of dualism that is contrary to a historically Christian affirmation and care for the body. The phenomenon of moral injury further problematizes this model of pastoral care in part due to a greater awareness that trauma is imprinted as much in the body as in the mind. Re-embodying Pastoral Theology uses the problem of moral injury in veterans to propose a pastoral theology that recognizes ritual as the means by which the Christian community addresses the body in pastoral care. In advancing this new approach to “ritual care,” the author draws from the fields of psychology, ritual studies, liturgical studies, and historical theology, as well as the experiences of veterans throughout history. This author endeavors first to re-think the Christian approach to moral injury and then to re-embody the field of Pastoral Theology.