When Stories Wound

How is moral agency shaped by the narratives we inherit, tell, and live through?

How do we live responsibly in a world shaped by narrative? When Stories Wound explores the significance of narrative for moral agency and engages the harm that our current polarizations have inflicted. This harm is often rooted in false, stereotyping, and dehumanizing narratives about others, by which we rationalize the existence of the wounded and abrogate responsibility for the work of healing and restoration.

Faced with the task of discerning how to live within our increasingly contested public spaces, Nathaniel Samuel suggests that the primary moral question for today is not centered on questioning what is the right thing to do, but rather asking, What are the right stories that must be known, and what is the fitting response? When Stories Wound urges readers to be conscious of the stories we live and to re-imagine what responsibility looks like—as only such commitment can break the hold of the divisive myths that we live, and recover the truth of our common humanity, shared brokenness, and mutual dependence.

Nathaniel Samuel, PhD, is assistant professor of liberation theology at the Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches classes in social justice, social ethics, and political economy. He holds graduate degrees in theology and ministry from Boston College and in economics from the University of London. Originally from St. Lucia, he lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.