Warrior-Healer: The Church as a Catalyst to Restore Justice, Combat Violence, and Heal Trauma in the City of Medicine

Abstract

AbstractThis thesis argues that the Church in Durham, North Carolina, can respond to racialized violence, trauma, and mass incarceration by reclaiming a warrior-healer vocation rooted in Black Evangelicalism within the historic Black Church. Using an interdisciplinary practical-theological method, the study places Black religious thought, restorative justice theory, trauma studies, history, sociology, and ministry experience in sustained conversation. Chapter 1 diagnoses the criminalization of Blackness, gun violence, mass incarceration, poverty, and embodied trauma as interlocking forms of harm shaping the lives of Black, Latine, and Indigenous children and communities. Chapter 2 traces restorative justice to African communal and Indigenous traditions while clarifying the race-conscious developments required for contemporary practice. Chapter 3 examines Common Justice, Community Passageways, and Restorative Justice Durham as case studies in community-based repair. Chapters 4 and 5 develop a theological account of the Church as warrior-healer and propose a church-led restorative justice center, Restore Jericho Impact, together with practices of congregational listening, survivor-centered accountability, youth formation, and neighborhood partnership. The thesis concludes that the gospel does not permit a separation between salvation and justice and that congregations become credible witnesses when they embody truth-telling, healing, presence, and restorative accountability in places most marked by violence.