Human Flourishing in a World of Trauma and Stress – With Heidi Ann Russell

How do we build communities of healing in a world shaped by trauma and stress?

Violence, war, displacement, and a global pandemic don’t only wound individuals; they mark whole communities, and their effects ripple across generations. Meanwhile, research into the brain and nervous system continues to reshape what we know about how harm lodges in the body and how healing actually happens. Our theology has to be able to meet those findings honestly.

In this webinar, pastoral theologian Heidi Ann Russell draws on her book Human Flourishing in a World of Trauma and Stress to offer a theological anthropology built for this moment that puts long-standing questions of freedom, sin, and grace into genuine conversation with contemporary trauma science. What does human freedom mean when the nervous system is doing much of the deciding? How do we talk about sin without adding shame to injury? Where does grace show up in a body that has learned to brace?

Equal parts theological and practical, this conversation is for pastors, chaplains, spiritual directors, lay leaders, caregivers, and anyone asking what flourishing can mean on the other side of harm.

About our Presenter:
Heidi Ann Russell, PhD, is an associate professor at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago. She holds a PhD in religious studies from Marquette University and an MDiv/MA from Washington Theological Union. Her books include The Source of All Love: Catholicity and the Trinity (Orbis Books, 2017) and Quantum Shift: Theological and Pastoral Implications of Contemporary Developments in Science (Liturgical Press, 2015).