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.

Post-Traumatic Jesus: Reading the Gospel with the Wounded

Peters, David W.

Religion & Spirituality

Westminster/John Knox Press

After traumatic events, many (especially young people) turn away from the Church; Post-Traumatic God 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, the Episcopal Veterans Fellowship, 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.

Post-Traumatic God: How the Church Cares for People Who Have Been to Hell and Back

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

Morehouse Publishing

Death Letter: God, Sex, and War

"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.

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Tactical 16

Tactical 16 Publishing

Accidental: Rebuilding a Life after Taking One

Broadleaf Books

- Applies popular Christ Walk approach as a path to reconciliation and healing - Combines physical and spiritual avenues in a holistic program that anyone can use "Walk it off," that much-used advice of coaches, turns out to work in the spiritual realm, too. Take a walk with Anna and David as they explore reconciliation and healing using the best-selling framework found in Christ Walk: A 40 Day Spiritual Fitness Program. Through their own experiences with moral injury, illness, and trauma, the authors have found that sometimes the best way to deal with stressful experiences is by moving their feet. Over the course of forty days, readers will experience God in each stage of the healing process in tandem with a biblically inspired journey.

Christ Walk Crushed: A 40-Day Journey toward Reconciliation

Courie, Anna Fitch

Church Publishing

Little Boy Lost: A Story of Hope and Redemption, Set Amidst the Backdrop of a Mother's Suicide

Memoirs

12 West Circle Books

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Books by Peters, David W.