Book launch and talk: Vulnerability, trauma and political theology

Traumatic experiences seem to be omnipresent in our world. Shocks, climate disasters, and acts of terror and despair reach us daily through the news. At times they also come closer, in our neighbourhoods, in the circle of our colleagues, friends and family, or in our own lives.

Sturla Stålsett has written a book entitled A Political Theology of Vulnerability. which is now out as Vol 3 in the Brill series Political and Public Theologies: Comparisons – Coalitions – Critiques.



He argues that human vulnerability is an invaluable feature in political agency in precarious situations – such as resistance, protest and acts of liberation. It is also, he holds, a key ingredient in efforts to construct an inclusive and just community. Consequently, a conventional approach to vulnerability, seeing it as a problem to be solved, or a weakness to be eliminated, has to be resisted. In order to do so, Stålsett finds it important to distinguish between vulnerability and woundedness. This is where he has found Shelly Rambo and theological reflections on the experiences of trauma and the persistence of wounds intriguing.

Professor Shelly Rambo of Boston University is one of the leading scholars of what in recent years has emerged as a ‘trauma theology.’ In her books Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining (Westminister John Knox, 2010), Resurrecting Wounds. Living in the Afterlife of Trauma (Baylor University Press 2017) she has carefully and innovatively developed a theological reflection that seeks to deal with the ways in which “wounds of race, gender, and war persist.”

In this afternoon event in the occasion of the publishing of A Political Theology of Vulnerability, Stålsett has invited Rambo to explore some common themes and possible tensions in our theological reflections on vulnerability and trauma. They will discuss new insights and relevant faith resources that may undergird initiatives of liberating practice in an age of political trauma.

There will be music, and possibility of purchasing drinks, snacks and books. ALL who might be interested in in the topic in one way or another are heartly invited..

VENUE: Galleriet, (right inside Glassbaren) Chateau Neuf

TIME: 1600-1730

The event will be streamed directly on Zoom. Please join us here.

WELCOME!