Inhabitable Shalom

Steven J. Bruening writes about inhabitable shalom, a shared life where noncoercive love and patient listening make scar-aware peace possible. An Ordained Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and trained in Stephen Ministry, he writes from pastoral care and open and relational theology while learning from Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, and Indigenous wisdom.

Born in Vietnam and brought to the United States as an infant through Operation Babylift, Steven grew up in Strongsville, Ohio, as the second youngest of five adopted children. His late father, Patrick, taught after studying theology and philosophy in seminary. From him, Steven learned to ask what theology says about God and neighbor, and how that truth becomes mercy in ordinary life.

Steven's care for wounded people comes from his own life. Raised Roman Catholic with an early call to Christian service, he also knew the pain of exclusion as a gay man and lived through years with HIV and AIDS in the early 1990s. Those wounds taught him to distrust any faith that uses power to name people falsely and to trust a faith brave enough to protect dignity while making room for healing.

Steven lives in Ohio with Eric Ratcliff, his partner of more than twenty-six years. He is blessed with three children and a grandson, and he finds joy in choir, congregational life, and walking with people through grief and change toward hope.