Shelly Rambo > Quotes

“Language falters in the abyss; it fractures at the site of trauma. We need to find a different way of speaking from the depths, reclaiming the notion that language about God is always fractured language, always broken, and never complete.”
― Shelly Rambo, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining

“The challenge of trauma is the challenge of witnessing to a phenomenon that exceeds the categories by which we make sense of the world.”
― Shelly Rambo, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining

“My work as a theologian does not take me into courtrooms, but studying trauma has changed the way I move in the world. I feel the fragility of the world more acutely than I did ten years ago. I view persons as more vulnerable in it, and the earth more wounded by our heavy footprints. I feel its weight.”
― Shelly Rambo, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining

“The pressure to get over, to forget, to wipe away the past, is often reinforced by one particular way of reading Christian redemption. The narrative of triumphant resurrection can often operate in such a way as to promise a radically new beginning to those who have experienced a devastating event. A linear reading of cross and resurrection places death and life in a continuum; death is behind and life is ahead; life emerges victoriously from death. This way of reading can, at its best, provide a sense of hope and promise for the future. But it can also gloss of the realities of pain and loss, glorify suffering, and justify violence.”
― Shelly Rambo, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining

“A rereading of these two events—death and resurrection—is timely in light of what we know about trauma. The dynamics of traumatic experience press Christian discourse beyond the site of the cross to think about what it means to live in the aftermath of death. Studies in trauma suggest that trauma has a double structure: the actual occurrence of a violent event(s) and a belated awakening to the event.8 Trauma is not solely located in the actual event but, instead, encompasses the return of that event, the ways in which the event is not concluded. This phenomenon is described in different ways, but the nature of trauma is such that an inability to fully process an event means that it returns. This return distinguishes trauma and suffering. Suffering is what, in time, can be integrated into one’s understanding of the world. Trauma is what is not integrated in time; it is the difference between a closed and an open wound. Trauma is an open wound. For those who survive trauma, the experience of trauma can be likened to a death. But the reality is that death has not ended; instead, it persists. The experience of survival is one in which life, as it once was, cannot be retrieved. However, the promise of life ahead cannot be envisioned.”
― Shelly Rambo, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining