When God Hurts: The Rhetoric of Religious Trauma as Epistemic Pain

ABSTRACT

This essay examines religious trauma by introducing two critical terms to rhetoricians, especially those working in mental health rhetorics: testimonial silencing and hermeneutical marginalization. Since Marlene Winell wrote about Religious Trauma Syndrome nearly three decades ago, the emergent field of religious trauma has only grown. However, we still lack critical vocabulary to describe various types of religious harm, especially epistemic injustice. By examining religious trauma through the lens of epistemic injustice, I center marginalized bodies who have been historically harmed as knowers. I also offer epistemic associative pleasure as a digital intervention. Now, new religious speakers can create their own good words and other ways of knowing by speaking back on social media.

KEYWORDS:

• Epistemic injustice
• hermeneutical marginalization
• mental health
• religious trauma
• testimonial silencing

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).