Writing and Reading to Survive – Biblical and contemporary trauma narratives in conversation

Writing and Reading to Survive brings a number of trauma narratives from the Hebrew Bible into conversation with contemporary trauma narratives, exploring how these ancient and modern-day stories mitigate the experiences of pain and suffering in the face of trauma. Continuing the conversation on the importance of trauma hermeneutics for reading biblical literature, the trauma narratives represented in this monograph serve as a safe haven for those, in past and present contexts, who are reeling from the effects of severe trauma, to voice the unspeakable, and to move towards healing and recovery by writing and reading to survive.

About the author

Prof Juliana Claassens is Professor in Old Testament with a focus on human dignity at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University. Her most recent book Claiming Her Dignity: Female Resistance in the Old Testament has recently been published with Liturgical Press (2016). Her works include The God who Provides: Biblical Images of Divine Nourishment (Abingdon, 2004) and the most recent, Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimaging God’s Liberating Presence in the Old Testament (Westminster John Knox, 2012).

She also served as the editor of a number of collections of essays – her most recent project co-editing a book called Restorative Readings: The Old Testament, Ethics and Human Dignity together with Bruce Birch for Wipf and Stock. See also Fragile Dignity: Intercontextual Conversations on Scriptures, Family and Violence. Semeia (co-editor with Klaas Spronk) (Atlanta, GA; SBL, 2013), Searching for Dignity: Conversations on Theology, Disability and Human Dignity (co-editor with Leslie Swartz and Len Hansen) (SunMedia, 2013) and Sacred Selves: Essays on Gender, Popular Culture and Religion (co-editor with Stella Viljoen) (Griffel 2012).

Publication details

Publisher:‎ Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd. | July 2022 | Hardback| ISBN- 978-1910928783