More than 1.6 million US military personnel have deployed during the past 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), respectively.  As a result of the protracted combat operations in two fronts, many military personnel have suffered traumatic experiences from seeing people die, coming close to death, or having killed people.  Even those who have not encountered direct combat, long deployments (commonly 12 months, but some experienced 15 months) and multiple deployments (often more than two) have caused many to suffer from combat stress.  Hence, American military has focused much effort and spent lots of money on addressing the result of combat stress induced psychological injury known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, and the treatment thereof. 

However, research shows that there is evidence for people to grow from their traumatic events and that the number of people that actually suffer from PTSD is only about 20% of the combat veterans of OIF and OEF.  While the number of combat veterans affected by PTSD is still significant, the question remains as to how many who have been exposed to combat stress were able to not develop full PTSD or, as some research suggest, have grown as a result of the trauma. 

Research shows that spirituality/religious faith helps people grow from traumatic experiences, in what is referred as Posttraumatic Growth (PTG).  The central theological question of the thesis is: What is it about religious faith that helps people to face their traumatic experience and eventually grow from the trauma?