Soul Repair
Since 2012, The Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School has offered public education and conducted research on moral injury and recovery for military veterans. During this time, it has educated religious and non-profit communities, employers, educators, religious leaders, chaplains, seminarians, and medical care-givers about the ways to support processes of healing for those who experience military moral injury and their families.
Beginning in July 2017, Dr. Nancy J. Ramsay, now Emerita Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care and former Chair of the Soul Repair Center National Advisory Board, became Director of the Soul Repair Center. Under Dr. Ramsay’s leadership, the Center is giving primary attention to developing resources for equipping faith communities from many religious traditions to engage in caring practices with veterans affected by moral injury and their families.
Since its official launch, the Center has been featured in national media stories. It is a major resource for:
- Identifying or developing resources for religious leaders and faith communities to:
- Welcome veterans into their communities and serve the spiritual needs of veterans;
- Offer hospitality to veterans and friends and families struggling with moral injury;
- Develop ritual resources and study scriptures that address moral injury in their communities; and
- Provide useful programmatic resources for diverse religious communities.
- Providing resources for religious leaders, military chaplains, VA chaplains, and professional caregivers such as
- Resources for working with sacred texts to provide healing
- Strategies for providing support in faith communities and recognizing strengths; and
- Linking therapeutic resources with the predictable needs created by moral injury for veterans and their families.
- Organizing specialized and regional programs such as:
- Religious associations and congregations
- Colleges and Universities
- Veteran Associations
- Civic and Social Groups
- Medical care-givers
- Identifying or recruiting development of re-entry and reintegration processes that support long-term recovery and a hopeful future.
- Fostering research into moral injury and offering an online information source for understanding moral injury and the many dimensions of recovery especially for faith communities and religious leaders.
- Supporting non-polarizing, complex, and engaged conversations about the moral questions that govern the conduct of war and other forms of socially sanctioned violence. These conversations enable non-partisan community engagement across traditional political and religious divides and foster deep listening practices that better serve the individual struggles of conscience in veterans.
- Disseminating information and training for places around the world that struggle in the aftermath of war and violence and that seek opportunities and avenues to support spiritual healing in their societies.
Moral Injury: A Guidebook for Understanding and Engagement, a resource on moral injury and care for those affected by it includes chapters by wwo authors associated with the Soul Repair Center, Dr. Joseph MacDonald and Dr. Nancy J. Ramsay.
Military Moral Injury and Spiritual Care A Resource for Religious Leaders and Professional Caregivers by Nancy J. Ramsay, Carrie Doehring.
Exploring Moral Injury in Sacred Texts, Edited by Dr. Joseph McDonald and sponsored by The Soul Repair Center
Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War by Rita Nakashima Brock, former Director of The Soul Repair Center, and Gabriella Lettini