Meg Warner - Joseph: A Story of Resilience

Meg Warner moves us on from Lloyd Webbers Poor, poor Joseph to meet a man trafficked and traumatised, by no means perfect, but for us a lesson in building resilience. Tracing her own story, which includes being limited by illness and finding work in a new country, Warner draws on biblical scholarship and research into trauma and resilience.

This book is written in both a down to earth and intelligent way, so that we weave our story, the authors and Josephs with contemporary issues, and consider how we have come through difficulties and can become more resilient in the future.

Meg Warner brings together a depth of biblical knowledge and a strong understanding of contemporary research on the impact of trauma on individuals and communities in her exploration of the story of the well-known biblical character of Joseph. She invites her readers into a deeper understanding of the way that the trauma of the ancient Israelite community is reflected in the Bible, and shows how this story continues to resonate with our own experiences of pain and suffering.

Along the way she shares her own story and invites us into a reflection of our own experiences, taking her reader on a journey of exploration without falling into the trap of prescribing the outcome. The book is carefully written and astute, full of compassion, hope and sensitivity. A great read for individuals wanting to explore issues of trauma and its impact, this book is also an invaluable resource for groups.

This book is electric. Meg Warner has that rare knack of using personal story to bring the biblical story to life. At every step she draws us in, challenging us to allow the biblical story, in turn, to bring us to life. It makes for compulsive reading.

With characteristic deftness, disarming honesty and exegetical skill, Meg Warner makes the story of Joseph a parable for our lives and our times.

First published in Great Britain in 2020

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
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London SW1P 4ST
www.spck.org.uk

Copyright Meg Warner 2020

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780281081080
eBook ISBN 9780281081097

Typeset by Nord Compo
First printed in Great Britain by Jellyfish Print Solutions
Subsequently digitally printed in Great Britain

eBook by Nord Compo

Produced on paper from sustainable forests

This digital document has been produced by Nord Compo.

Meg Warner is Tutor in Old Testament at Northern College, Manchester. She is a Reader in the Church of England, a regular guest speaker at synods, festivals and other church gatherings around the UK and internationally, and (writing as Megan Warner) author and editor of several books, most recently Re-Imagining Abraham: A Re-Assessment of the Influence of Deuteronomism in Genesis (Brill, 2018), Confronting Religious Violence: A Counter-Narrative (with Richard A. Burridge and Jonathan Sacks, Baylor, 2018) and Tragedies and Christian Congregations: The Practical Theology of Trauma (Routledge, 2020). Joseph: A story of resilience is the follow-up to her highly successful Lent book, Abraham: A journey through Lent (SPCK, 2015).

For Christopher Southgate, Hilary Ison and Carla Grosch-Miller,
with thanks for recruiting me, and then being recruited in return.

And for Ian Markham. He knows why.