More than 1.6 million US military personnel have deployed during the past 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), respectively. As a result of the protracted combat operations in two fronts, many military personnel have suffered traumatic experiences from seeing people die, coming close to death, or having killed people. Even for those who have not encountered direct combat, long deployments (commonly 12 months, but some experienced 15 months) and multiple deployments (often more than two), have caused many to suffer from combat stress. Hence, American military has focused much effort and spent lots of money on addressing the result of combat stress induced psychological injury known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, and the treatment thereof. However, research shows that only about 20% of combat veterans suffer from actual PTSD. In fact, most combat veterans probably suffer more from stressors of being in a combat deployment, with what is being referred to as 'combat stress injury', 'moral injury', or 'soul injury'. Furthermore, other research shows that growth (in various aspects of one's life) is possible; a greater percentage of people with various traumatic experiences report this potential to grow as a result of the traumata. Research shows that spirituality/religious faith helps people grow from traumatic experiences, and can lead to what is referred as Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). The central theological question of the thesis is: What is it about religious faith that helps people to eventually grow from trauma? The qualitative research conducted for this thesis indicates that the key element to PTG is actually community, more specifically, the community of faith, more than the individual's faith. The essential theological inquiry is how ecclesiology is embodied in the military chaplaincy context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:680992 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Lee, Mark Chong |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=228986 |
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