If you’ve been wondering why FSS has been a bit catatonic in the last couple of days, it’s because I’ve been writing a final paper for my women’s theology class- about how to preach to those whose lives have been touched by trauma and who therefore dwell in a “middle space” of “life in death” and “death in life.”  Shelly Rambo’s work, Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining, which argues for a retrieval of the meaning and importance of Holy Saturday along with a so-called “Middle Spirit” who ministers during Christ’s absence (in hell) in this place in between death and resurrection, lays the central theological groundwork for a homiletical infrastructure of sorts.  Rambo applies the insights of trauma theory to her enterprise, asking how “trauma” (which by definition means no one-time event, but rather the ongoing living out of the initial trauma) problematizes and enriches our understanding of redemption. I have taken Rambo’s theological framework and asked how it might perform in the pulpit.

Since the brainy nerds or insomniacs in our midst might enjoy taking a look, here is my paper: https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/?ui=2&ik=6e7ae48b02&view=att&th=13702f33e65e87bb&attid=0.1.0&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P8QBljIAU6Dd8xEb6IkRY2l&sadet=1335784405779&sads=Y-ZPSYTEjjz8joul5qxqgmIltro&sadssc=1