The radicality of listening to stories: How to listen to a war story

Telling stories is central to how we make meaning as people. What, then, is so radical about listening to stories? At a time when veterans are seeking reintegration into civilian life and communities are looking for ways to connect with veterans, stories become a way to come together. The radicality comes in the difficulty of sharing and listening to stories of war, particularly those that include potentially morally injurious events. Tim O’Brien said it best in that, "Often in a true war story there is not even a point, or else the point doesn’t hit you until twenty years later, in your sleep, and wake up and shake your wife and start telling the story to her, except when you get to the end you’ve forgotten the point again.” This webinar explores both the power of story in providing a pathway to healing and the skills to hold those stories as communities.

For this webinar we are delighted to welcome Josh Morris, Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr Morris is an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ and a Board-Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains. Dr Morris also brings fifteen years of experience as an army chaplain in the United States Army Reserve. In previous army chaplain assignments, he served at various echelons throughout the United States and deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He is the author of Moral Injury Among Returning Veterans: From “Thank You for Your Service” to a Liberative Solidarity and numerous peer-reviewed articles in Pastoral Psychology, the Journal of Pastoral Theology and Reflective Practice.