Toward a Theology of Mental Illness

Abstract

This article considers research describing religious attitudes toward mental illness, including assumptions that mental illness may be evidence of personal sin or demonic influence. These assumptions are critiqued based upon a review of relevant Scriptural passages. A reformulation of theological conceptions of mental illness is then proposed, focusing on the following themes: heroism in frailty, freedom in finitude, complexity in disorder, and the stranger in our midst. In conclusion, the article offers potential implications of theologies describing a passable God for an understanding of human suffering in general, and the suffering in mental disorder in particular.

KEYWORDS:

• religious attitudes
• mental illness
• theology of disability

Acknowledgments

This manuscript is an abridged version of a paper presented as the 2009 Winifred E. Weter Faculty Award Lecture at Seattle Pacific University. The author wishes to express her gratitude for the support provided by the Winifred E. Weter Faculty Award Lecture for Meritorious Scholarship and by the Living Well Initiative at Seattle Pacific University. Note: Scriptural texts in this manuscript are taken from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.

Notes

1. In the following commentary, use of the term “America” refers exclusively to the United States.

2. Other incidents which demonstrate a relation between physical disorder and the demonic are found in Luke 6: 18, Acts 10: 38 and 2 Corinthians 12:7.

3. I am indebted to Dr. James T. Butler, Old Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, for his account of this discrepancy in the Biblical narratives about Moses. Dr. Butler noted this inconsistency during a seminary course in which I was enrolled during the 1980s. As I recall, he emphasized the importance of the “bottom line,” or the end result, of one's faith.