Resources & Field Notes

Short reflections and resources on moral injury, burnout, spiritual care, disaster response, and the honest work of naming what people carry.

Field Notes

• The Moral Cost of Public Witness

  Adapted from themes in Bearing the Weight: Moral Injury, Public Witness, and Reformed Faithfulness, forthcoming from Wipf and Stock By Rev. Gregory C. Smith, Ph.D. Many of the most faithful peo…

• Why This Conversation Matters

  FIELD NOTE ABOUT MORAL INJURY #1 Welcome to The Moral Injury Project. If you have found your way here, there is a good chance that something about the phrase moral injury has captured your atte…

Foundations of Moral Injury

• How Can Theology and Research Illuminate Each Other in Understanding Moral Injury?

  The study of moral injury has emerged as one of the most significant developments in contemporary psychology, trauma studies, military ethics, healthcare, and helping professions. Originally explored among combat veterans, moral injury is increasingly recogniz…

• What Is Moral Injury?

  Moral injury describes the emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual distress that may arise when individuals experience events that violate deeply held moral beliefs, values, or expectations. Although initially studied among military veterans, moral inj…

• Moral Injury vs. Burnout

  Distinguishing Moral Wounds from Occupational Exhaustion

• Moral Injury vs. PTSD

  Understanding Two Distinct Forms of Trauma

• How Moral Injury Develops

  Betrayal, Helplessness, and Impossible Choices

• The Spiritual Dimensions of Moral Injury

  Meaning, Faith, and the Search for Repair

• Lament as Moral Repair

  What Ancient Faith Traditions Can Teach Us About Healing Moral Injury

• The Beatitudes and Moral Injury

  Reading Jesus Through the Lens of the Wounded, the Grieving, and the Burdened

• Jesus and Moral Injury

  Although the term moral injury is modern, many of the experiences associated with moral injury appear throughout Scripture. Among the most significant examples is the life and passion of Jesus. The Gospel accounts portray Jesus experiencing betrayal, abandonme…

• The Psalms of Lament and Moral Injury

  Learning to Pray When Trust Has Been Broken

• Habakkuk and the Collapse of Certainty

  What Happens When God Does Not Make Sense Anymore?