APRIL 26, 2026: NANCY J. RAMSAY program on "MORAL INJURY: A Rupture in the Moral Foundations of Human Relationships"

Date/Time: April 26, 2026 @ 2pm

Location: First Presbyterian Church; 400 New Street, New Bern, NC 28560

Presenter: Nancy J. Ramsay, Emerita Professor of Pastoral Theology, Brite Divinity School

Program: Moral Injury: A Rupture in the Moral Foundations of Human Relationships

Program Abstract:​​

Moral Injury is a new term for the ancient recognition that while life in community relies on moral obligations and expectations toward one another; inevitably, at times our actions fall short of fulfilling such obligations and expectations. While its contemporary use arose in the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, the concept is valuable across human communities.

Agential Moral Injury describes the injurious consequences that arise when we exercise our agency in ways that violate personal and shared expectations including moral obligations such as sexual misconduct, or financial malfeasance.

Receptive Moral Injury describes the harm we experience when a person we trust violates our trust, perhaps by disclosing information shared in confidence or altering mutual performance expectations without consultation. 

Inevitably, in business and professional life, situations arise that require action about which boards, colleagues, and employees may disagree. For example, Moral Injury may certainly emerge when a budget requires cutting the position of an employee whose evaluations reflect exemplary work or reducing budget increases which employees had been encouraged to expect. It may arise in academic settings when administrative, budget, and curricular decisions require revising expectations such as closing a department, or terminating personnel.

The obligations informing life in community reflect a shared understanding of our moral commitments to our neighbors and to the well-being of our local and global community. Life in community relies on such foundational norms and mutual expectations.

Speaker Bio:

Nancy J. Ramsay is Emerita Professor of Pastoral Theology at Brite Divinity School where she also served as Executive Vice President and Dean from 2005-2012. She is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is a member of AAMFT where she has held supervisory status. She is the author or editor of four books including Pastoral Care and Counseling: Redefining the Paradigms, the supplement for the Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, as well as numerous articles and chapters. Her primary research and teaching interests include military moral injury and addressing intersecting forms of difference treated oppressively. She is a founding member of the Society for Pastoral Theology and also active in the American Academy of Religion, the Association for Practical Theology, and the International Academy of Practical Theology.