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In this episode of Psalms for the Spirit, Kiran Young Wimberly sits down with renowned theologian, author, and longtime Union Theological Seminary president, Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, for a profound conversation about trauma, healing, and the enduring power of the Psalms.
Drawing from her influential book Trauma and Grace: Theology in a Ruptured World, Serene reflects on John Calvin’s beautiful description of the Psalms as “an anatomy of all parts of the soul.” Together, Kiran and Serene explore how the Psalms give voice to grief, rage, fear, hope, and healing — and how prayer, lament, singing, and communal worship can help people process trauma and rediscover courage, agency, and grace.
The conversation touches on collective suffering in today’s world, the role of faith communities in healing, and the deep comfort of knowing that God can hold even our most painful cries.
One especially moving reflection from Serene reminds us: “God is there holding you, listening to you, hearing your tears and your cries, your woes, not afraid of them, tough enough to hold them.”
This episode is an invitation to bring every part of yourself before God — even the broken and wounded parts — and to discover how the Psalms continue to guide us toward hope, resilience, and healing.
Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is a highly respected scholar and public intellectual, and the 16th President of the historic Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The first woman to head the 190-year-old institution, Jones occupies the Johnston Family Chair for Religion and Democracy. She is a Past President of the American Academy of Religion, which annually hosts the world’s largest gathering of scholars of religion. Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, and Chair of the University’s Program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of several books including Trauma and Grace and, most recently, her memoir Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World. Jones, a popular public speaker, is sought by media to comment on major issues impacting society because of her deep grounding in theology, politics, women’s studies, economics, race studies, history, and ethics.
Learn more about Rev. Dr. Serene Jones here:
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Featured Celtic Psalms Songs:
Psalm 30: You Have Turned My Sorrow
Psalm 137: By The Waters
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