<p>This article proposes creation trauma as a theological anthropology that understands human finitude, expansive awareness, and trauma as structural conditions of creaturely existence rather than anomalies or consequences of individual sin. Drawing on contemporary trauma theory, recent work on the moral trauma spectrum, moral injury research, and trauma‑aware biblical interpretation, it reframes sin as trauma‑shaped agency arising under conditions of structural fragility rather than as the exercise of an abstractly free will. The article argues that human beings are created into a world of overwhelming complexity, relational risk, and vulnerability, where expansive awareness outstrips regulatory capacity and where harm is therefore structurally inevitable. Within this frame, trauma is not an interruption of an otherwise safe and stable order but a predictable outcome of finite creatures navigating a world of dense interdependence. The doctrines of creation, Christology, and pneumatology are reread through this lens, drawing on Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of divine suffering, Johnson’s feminist reimagining of God, Sarah Coakley’s account of desire and vulnerability, and Amos Yong’s pneumatology of relational presence. The article then explores the implications of creation trauma for pastoral and clinical practice, engaging trauma‑informed pastoral theology, spiritually respectful processes of lamentation, and moral injury care. It concludes by suggesting that a trauma‑informed doctrine of creation can underwrite more honest, compassionate, and justice‑oriented forms of ministry in which divine action is understood not as the prevention of all harm but as a persistent, co‑regulating presence within traumatised creation.</p>

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Creation Trauma: A Theological Anthropology of Finitude, Expansive Awareness, and Trauma-Informed Divine Action

  • Steven Clancy

摘要

This article proposes creation trauma as a theological anthropology that understands human finitude, expansive awareness, and trauma as structural conditions of creaturely existence rather than anomalies or consequences of individual sin. Drawing on contemporary trauma theory, recent work on the moral trauma spectrum, moral injury research, and trauma‑aware biblical interpretation, it reframes sin as trauma‑shaped agency arising under conditions of structural fragility rather than as the exercise of an abstractly free will. The article argues that human beings are created into a world of overwhelming complexity, relational risk, and vulnerability, where expansive awareness outstrips regulatory capacity and where harm is therefore structurally inevitable. Within this frame, trauma is not an interruption of an otherwise safe and stable order but a predictable outcome of finite creatures navigating a world of dense interdependence. The doctrines of creation, Christology, and pneumatology are reread through this lens, drawing on Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of divine suffering, Johnson’s feminist reimagining of God, Sarah Coakley’s account of desire and vulnerability, and Amos Yong’s pneumatology of relational presence. The article then explores the implications of creation trauma for pastoral and clinical practice, engaging trauma‑informed pastoral theology, spiritually respectful processes of lamentation, and moral injury care. It concludes by suggesting that a trauma‑informed doctrine of creation can underwrite more honest, compassionate, and justice‑oriented forms of ministry in which divine action is understood not as the prevention of all harm but as a persistent, co‑regulating presence within traumatised creation.