Abstract:
The onslaught of COVID-19, war between Russia and Ukraine, the communal
violence in Manipur, and so on, leads us to an important area of concern that the public
theology in Asia should listen sensitively and attentively: Trauma. Given the contextual
nature of the public theology, one of the normative concerns in attending to the current
affairs of the world is the common good of the subalterns. The Church, society and
academia are the three public areas of theological investigation wherein the Bible ever
remains a fertile ground, and on which the Asian Christianity should continue to nurture
and strengthen their prophetic role. Based on the aforementioned outline, this paper
attempts to open up a new arena for public theology in Asia by discussing about the
biblical hermeneutics of trauma. Reading the sacred texts in the light of trauma theory
has broadened the biblical scholarship.
The Sitz im Leben of the ancient text should definitely come in contact with the
context of the reader. Therefore, a reader-oriented understanding of the biblical materials
bears abundant fruits for the networking of public theologies in Asia. “Trauma is
suffering that remains”: psychology, literature, media and arts has been re-reading the
social plight through these “unclaimed experiences” that occur due to various natural
and man-made disasters. Consequently, from early 2000s, the biblical hermeneutics is
re-focusing its attention, especially to the pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic texts of the
Old Testament from the perspective of trauma. For this purpose, the biblical hermeneutics
stands as a linchpin of trauma studies, public theology and Asian context. “The violent
gift” can never remain unwrapped. Hence, we should claim it to confront the same in
our circumstance.
