“Serving the Spirit of Goodness”: Spiritual and Theological Responses to Affliction in the Writings of St. John of the Cross and Louise Erdrich

Abstract

Psychology provides a powerful lens for interpreting the destructiveness of traumatic suffering for individuals and society. Religion can complement this discipline by diagnosing and responding to the spiritual maiming caused by trauma. John of the Cross’s “dark night” occurs in the aftermath of torture and imprisonment, providing an account of transformation by divine love which tends to the self-hatred and despair caused by trauma. Louise Erdrich, less sanguine about radical healing, paints a picture of the personal and social effects of the dismemberment of Ojibwe culture even as she imagines, through her character Father Damian, responses that create ways forward. Both writers suggest that unconditional compassion makes available an efficacy that can mitigate some of the most destructive effects of intense suffering.