After traumatic events, many turn away from the Church; this book presents a path home, providing a way back to a God who can be trusted, loved, and worshipped. Today, the church is sometimes viewed (even from within) as a place apart, which may create a barrier of understanding for those who have experienced trauma. Post-Traumatic God grew out of Peters’ own experience as a chaplain in Iraq and later as an Episcopal priest, and from his subsequent work with an organization he founded, Episcopal Veterans for Peace, which helped him identify the need for this quite-different book to bridge that gap. In it, Peters explores three related themes: history (the early church itself was a post-traumatic community); theology (especially building on Tillich's World War I experiences and the theology he subsequently developed); and ecclesiology (how church can offer community to trauma survivors. Post-Traumatic God equips the Church to heal the unseen wounds of the soul.

A post-traumatic Jesus is the only Jesus Christianity has ever known. For thousands of years, Jesus' wounds, both visible and invisible, have been a way to know him and find healing in a traumatized world. This book examines the Gospels through the lens of trauma, in hopes that the reader will meet the post-traumatic Jesus and feel his love.

Simultaneously published in St. Louis, Missouri by Chalice Press, 2015.

Many counselors are not adequately prepared to help those suffering from complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). In this updated text, Heather Davediuk Gingrich provides an essential resource for Christian counselors, ably integrating the established research on trauma therapy with insights from her own thirty years of experience and an understanding of the special concerns related to Christian counseling.

She's seen slave dungeons in Ghana. Genocide in Rwanda. Systemic sexual abuse in Brazil. Child abuse and domestic violence in the US. After forty years of counseling abuse survivors around the world, Dr. Diane Langberg, a world renowned trauma expert, remains certain that what trauma destroys, Christ can and does restore. This book will convince you, too, of the healing heart of God. But it's not a fast process, instead much patience is required from family, friends, and counselors as they wisely and respectfully help victims unpack their traumatic suffering through talking, tears, and time. And it's not a process that can be separated from the work of God in both a counselor and counselee. Dr. Langberg calls all of those who wish to help sufferers to model Jesus's sacrificial love and care in how they listen, love, and guide. The heart of God is revealed to sufferers as they grow to understand the cross of Christ and how their God came to this earth and experienced such severe suffering that he too is "well-acquainted with grief." The cross of Christ is the lens that transforms and redeems traumatic suffering and its aftermath, not only for the sufferer, but it also transforms those who walk with the suffering. This book will be a great help to anyone who loves, listens to, and seeks to help someone impacted by trauma and abuse. There is no quick fix, but there is the hope for healing through the love of God in Christ.

How does severe interpersonal harm affect our freedom and the ways in which we relate to ourselves, others, and God? This book addresses the challenges that trauma and feminist theory pose to cherished theological convictions about human freedom and divine grace.

After twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a global pandemic, protests against racial violence, and frequent shootings, more Americans than ever are living with the effects of trauma. The good news is that Jesus was born and died in a traumatized world, and his story speaks forever to wounded people worldwide. Army veteran and Episcopal priest David Peters explores Jesus’ life story through the post-traumatic lens with which the Gospel writers first wrote it—as people who had seen their leader executed by the same oppressive government that had already shrouded their whole lives in anxiety and fear. Meeting the post-traumatic Jesus—the only Jesus the world has ever known—can be a balm to the wounds of modern Christians and spiritual seekers.

"Everyone writes one. At least, everyone who fights in a war does." These are the first lines of Army chaplain David W. Peters' genre-defying book, Death Letter: God, Sex, and War. Written in the dark days immediately following his deployment to Iraq, Death Letter is part memoir, part comic lament, on his relationship with the three great subjects of our mythic imagination.

Mad at God unwraps the mystery of the Old Testament prophet's wisdom through Lee Milliner's own experience as a seasoned military chaplain and combat veteran, and we are given an invitation to peer into the soul of the despairing believer that we may find our own way through perplexity and pain. Heartfelt and heartrending, this book taps into the hard-earned wisdom of scripture in a way that is understandable and affirming. We are allowed to wrestle with the angst and anger that come with facing inexpressible pain and untold sorrow. There are no holds barred... This book tackles the one place few are willing to go: into the eye of the storm that is the crisis of faith. But it's here that recovery is received: real and available for all who have the courage to move toward the salvation found in our Redeemer. -From the "Foreword" by Margaret Kibben, Chaplain, US House of Representatives Twenty-sixth Chief of Navy Chaplains 2

Hardcover edition published under the title: Post-traumatic church syndrome: a memoir of humor and healing