Teaching Trauma and Theology Inspires Lives of Witnessing Discipleship

This article argues that teaching theology and trauma signifies the role of theological education as a conducive site for the missional formation of witnessing discipleship. Witnessing discipleship is a risky practice of bearing witness to life and healing in the midst of violence and its traumatic traces. As a central dimension of academic formation, teaching plays a significant role in empowering and inspiring students toward lives of witnessing discipleship. The article draws the key concept of witnessing discipleship from the ancient Christian tradition of martyrdom into conversation with a trauma perspective on witnessing by embedding the concept in the complex history of communal religious violence and political violence in Indonesia. The aim is to provide a picture of the complex interconnection between theological education (academia) and the public sphere – which is shaped by collective trauma – in which the missional formation is taking place. The article uses Jakarta Theological Seminary, the oldest Protestant/ecumenical seminary in Indonesia, as a case study for a contextual model of the teaching of theology and trauma that equips students for practising witnessing discipleship. Shelly Rambo, whose work on theology and trauma is shaping a theological shift in response to trauma, is the main interlocutor. This article affirms that trauma ruptures theology. It focuses on two intertwined dimensions of the rupturing – the Christian discourse on suffering and witnessing – by employing the image of a posture that embodies the unspeakability of trauma and the promise of healing. It articulates a theological response to the ways in which trauma and healing contain each other and shape the public sphere. This article offers three intertwined layers – the multidirectional classroom, the hermeneutic of rupture, and the aesthetics of healing.