Trauma, Theology, and Kagandahan : Discerning a Practical Theology of Liturgical Care among Filipino Christians

Abstract This paper aims to look at Filipino lived experience of trauma within the liturgical space and a pastoral theology that may emerge from it. Using practical theological methodology, this study is an interdisciplinary excursion into lived experience, trauma, and liturgical theology. This paper argues that performative, symbolic, and aesthetic experiences in the liturgy have therapeutic potential in activating meaning-making among people who have experienced trauma. Interfacing these analyses with Filipino thought and Christian tradition, it can be articulated that the experience of the beautiful mediated through physical symbols and the aesthetic, particularly in worship, is a potent vehicle for God’s transformative action.