A Theological Model for Moral Injury: Human Brokenness and Divine Grace

Moral injury, first recognized among veterans of war by psychologists and military chaplains, is now named across police, first responders, medical, and other professions. This paper locates moral injury in human brokenness. Other explorations typically begin with discussing issues, such as agency and symptomology. This paper outlines a theological model that analyses moral injury's landscape as shaped by the shattering of moral expectations and the implosion of moral framework. The model distinguishes moral injury from other experiences of moral stress, such as moral frustrations and distress. The model demonstrates both explanatory and descriptive power to illuminate the pathology of moral injury across a range of professions beyond psychology, and its usefulness in interdisciplinary discourses. It suggests strategic directions for the prevention of moral injury, and in effecting moral repair and other experiences of moral stress. Acknowledging the brokenness present in humans, culture and institutions, the model recognizes that the exploration of moral injury is more than ‘outside’ the researcher. A distinctive theological stance of godly uncertainty, questioning, and humility will properly mark analyses of the injury, one of the most deleterious of human experiences.