Fractured Ground
Fractured Ground
Fractured Ground
Preaching in the Wake of Mass Trauma
Kimberly R Wagner; foreword by Thomas G. Long
Westminster John Knox Press, 2023
ISNB 9780664267841
Softcover, 176 pp.
6.0 X 9.0 X 0.42 inches | 0.61 pounds
Fractured Ground helps pastors craft sermons that fully plumb the disorienting suffering created by events of mass trauma, while still offering an authentic word of hope. Kimberly Wagner provides both incisive explanations of what trauma is and especially how it affects communities of faith, along with practical guidance for crafting sermons that reflect the brokenness of the traumatic situation and the persistent love of God that binds the broken together. Drawing on the burgeoning field of trauma studies, eschatological theologies of hope, scriptural wisdom, and liturgies of lament, Wagner helps preachers imagine what it might mean to preach a narratively fractured sermon in the aftermath of a communal traumatic event, ultimately affirming that no amount of brokenness is beyond the presence and promise of God.