Reading Resilience in the Psalms: Trauma, Healing, and the Strength to Survive, Book Launch with Rebecca W. Poe Hays

How can the ancient Psalms help us navigate trauma, foster resilience, and cultivate hope in the midst of life's deepest challenges?

Join the Institute for Faith and Learning for a book launch celebrating Reading Resilience in the Psalms: Trauma, Healing, and the Strength to Survive, the newest book by Rebecca W. Poe Hays. Drawing on biblical studies, trauma theory, and the psychology of resilience, Dr. Poe Hays offers a fresh reading of the Psalms that explores how these ancient songs have served—and continue to serve—as resources for healing, survival, and human flourishing.

Through a trauma-informed approach to Scripture, the book examines how the Psalter reflects experiences of suffering while also providing practices and perspectives that help individuals and communities move toward healing and resilience. By bringing biblical scholarship into conversation with contemporary understandings of trauma, Reading Resilience in the Psalms offers valuable insights for scholars, students, pastors, counselors, and anyone seeking to understand the enduring relevance of the Psalms.

Following Dr. Poe Hays's presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a question-and-answer session and celebrate the publication of the book with colleagues from across the Baylor community.

Light refreshments will be provided.

About the Author

Rebecca W. Poe Hays, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Christian Scriptures (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. Her research focuses on biblical Hebrew poetry, the Psalms, trauma, resilience, and the ways Scripture shapes individuals and communities through story and worship.

She is the author of Reading Resilience in the Psalms: Trauma, Healing, and the Strength to Survive (Oxford University Press, 2026) and The Function of Story in the Hebrew Psalter (2021). Her recent scholarship has appeared in journals including Word & World, Horizons in Biblical Theology, Biblical Theology Bulletin, Journal of Biblical Literature, and Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.

Before joining the faculty at Truett Seminary, Dr. Poe Hays worked with Baylor's Institute for Faith and Learning on a Lilly Endowment initiative exploring vocation in churches. An ordained Baptist minister, she is passionate about helping readers discover how Scripture speaks to contemporary questions of suffering, healing, resilience, and faithful living.