Talking to Victims of Trauma Through the Lens of Atonement Theology

Ron Wymer

Etd

Talking to Victims of Trauma Through the Lens of Atonement Theology

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Ron Wymer. Talking to Victims of Trauma Through the Lens of Atonement Theology. rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/c1392df7-d97a-4d9d-a078-c8ae03d6ba9f?q=2022.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

R. Wymer. Talking to Victims of Trauma Through the Lens of Atonement Theology. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/c1392df7-d97a-4d9d-a078-c8ae03d6ba9f?q=2022

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Ron Wymer. Talking to Victims of Trauma Through the Lens of Atonement Theology. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/c1392df7-d97a-4d9d-a078-c8ae03d6ba9f?q=2022.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Creator

Ron Wymer

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Abstract

Metaphors concerning atonement theology that are misunderstood, poorly defined, and clumsily communicated often lead to a mischaracterization of God to those who have experienced trauma or abuse. Theological scholars, local church leaders, and pulpit preachers have discussed and debated the correct way to describe Christ’s work of atonement. However, little concern has been shown when communicating atonement theology toward those who have been injured by trauma and abuse. This study aims to provide a platform for the abused to share their stories concerning their spiritual formation through the lens of their experience both with trauma and theological teaching by church leaders. The use of terms trauma and abuse are defined by the participants in the study albeit as broad or narrow as the participant determines by their own definition.To test this hypothesis, a survey was distributed to the entire congregation of a medium-sized Mid-Western Evangelical congregation concerning their grasp of atonement theological terms as well as their perceived characterization of the God of their understanding, connectedness with others in the congregation, and grasp of theological terms relating to atonement theology. Following a four-week teaching series, a second similar survey was conducted to gauge movement in the areas of study. Additionally, all survey respondents were given the opportunity to privately schedule individual interviews with the researcher to share their insights and experiences with trauma and the church teaching on atonement theology. Church survey responses were scored by numerical averages. The results showed a significant increase in knowledge of atonement theology and small increases in correcting characterization of God and connectedness with fellow believers in the congregation. The interviews reported a lack of meaningful interaction with most of the subjects instead it was reported creating their own view of God’s care, comfort, and leading through the traumatic experiences.

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