Ukrainian Women’s Resilience and Resistance through the Lens of Marian Trauma Theology

This chapter looks at the suffering and agency of Ukrainian women in the Russian-Ukrainian war through the lens of feminist trauma-sensitive theology. Feminist Mariology is key in the work of trauma-sensitive theologian Karen O'Donnell. Her original approach of attending to “the voices of the Marys” (O'Donnell, 2020) is used as a heuristic key to explore and elucidate the narrated experiences of Ukrainian women. The chapter is divided in three parts. First, the author describes how the resilience and resistance of Ukrainian women in this war needs to be understood from a history of collective, transgenerational trauma and resistance that has shaped their moral and spiritual agency. Second, it is illustrated how Ukrainian (female) artists in their contemporary war art powerfully translate iconographic prototypes of Mary, the Mother of God, into the socio-ethical, political context, responding to the wounds of war. Finally, adding to the visual representations and sometimes tightly intertwined with them, women's narratives of war are listened to. Some modest case studies are presented that bring traumatic experiences, narrated by the living voices of Ukrainian women, in creative dialogue with the stories of the four Marys in the New Testament. It results in the end in some suggestions on how feminist trauma theology can be further developed from women's experiences in and reflections on the ongoing war in Ukraine.