Moral Injury - by Brad E Kelle (Paperback)

About the Book

This book attempts to illuminate the issue of moral injury and identify means of healing, recovery, and repair for those morally injured by their experiences in combat (or similar situations).

Book Synopsis

Moral injury has developed in earnest since 2009 within psychology and military studies, especially through work with veterans of the U.S. military's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A major part of this work is the attempt to identify means of healing, recovery, and repair for those morally injured by their experiences in combat (or similar situations). What this volume does is to provide insight into the identification of moral injury, the development of the notion, attempts to work with those affected, emerging ideas about moral injury, portraits of moral injury in the past and present, and, especially, what creative engagement with moral injury might look like from a variety of perspectives. As such, it will be an important resource for Christian ministers, chaplains, health care workers, and other providers and caregivers who serve afflicted communities.

Review Quotes

"This is a remarkable and remarkably useful volume, excellently edited by Brad Kelle, who recently penned his own monograph on moral injury and its relationship to the Bible. Sixteen substantial essays from expert theorists and practitioners (some of whom are themselves military veterans) offer great insight onto this difficult and draining topic from the fields of theology, psychology, biblical studies, chaplaincy, and more. The result is exactly what editor Kelle hoped for and what we readers need: a multi-voiced and multi-perspectival resource for understanding moral injury and a model for creative and cross-disciplinary ways of engaging an issue that will only become more important in our ever more violent world. Highly recommended!" --Brent A. Strawn, professor of Old Testament and professor of law, Duke University

"This indispensable collection reveals the power of moral injury as an intersecting, salient, and generative lens for understanding trauma and suffering. Rich in resources for veterans, it invites us all to take responsibility for those who serve society in high-stakes situations; it offers illuminating interpretations of ancient texts; and it provides clinical and pastoral resources for mitigating the devastating effects of moral injury on both individuals and society." --Rita Nakashima Brock, co-author of Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War, director of the Shay Moral Injury Center at Volunteers of America

About the Author

Brad E. Kelle is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Point Loma Nazarene University Recently and author of The Bible and Moral Injury: Reading Scripture Alongside War's Unseen Wounds.