ABSTRACT
Clinicians and clergy often have very contrasting stories to tell of resilience in the lives of the people for whom they care. Forlini Burt proposes three hallmarks of resilience – ‘the courage to engage God honestly, the choice to fold wilderness experiences into larger narratives, and the capacity to share those experiences with others’, none of which, she believes, can happen without God. In Deuteronomy, the wilderness is literal in the narrative, but the metaphor has become more deeply and widely significant for Christian spirituality. Christian scripture and theology are intimately concerned with experiences of risk and adversity. Drawing on the scientific literature, Joanna Collicutt draws attention to the empirical research evidence that suggests that spirituality and religion provide effective coping resources in the face of trauma and adversity. The stories that contextualise the nature of adversity are the same stories that providing coping resources, and which guide expectations as to what a good outcome might look like.
