Finding Health in the
Enduring Love of God
John Swinton Interview
A conversation with theologian John Swinton, about his new book,
Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of
Christians with Mental Health Challenges
(Paperback: Eerdmans, 2020).
– Page 3 –
The bulk of the book focuses on three of the most prominent mental health challenges and redescribing each so that readers will have a deeper understanding and clarity of the experiences of those who face these challenges: depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. For each of these three challenges, can you give our readers a small taste of how you redescribe the experience, and how that redescription stands in contrast to common understandings of that particular mental health challenge?
JS:
Depression
Central to living with depression is the painful experience of darkness and alienation. Sometimes that alienation is from God as well as others and self. Some may be tempted to think that the person shouldn’t be feeling that way and that if they only prayed a little harder or found the sin that was causing it then they could be well again. This is what you might call a casual theodicy, that is an explanation of what someone thinks is going on that doesn’t take the time to listen or to think about the impact of their words. In countering such negative spiritual stigma we might turn to the psalms of lament. There we discover that God has given us a language to articulate our pain, suffering and loss in worshipful ways which are open, honest, painful but ultimately prayerful. As we focus on the lament psalms we discover that the deep sense of abandonment that some people experience is in fact something that has been shared by God’s people from the beginning: “Darkness is my only companion …(Psalm 88)” Again, as we reflect on the gospels, we discover resurrection, but we also encounter desolation. Jesus’s cry of abandonment from the cross “My God, My God. Why have you forsaken me,” reminds us that even when God seems distant and far away, Jesus remains with us and shares deeply in our pain and feelings of alienation. Darkness is not simply an aberration; it is a part of our Christian spirituality. Noticing such theological insights will not take away the pain of depression, but it does assure us that such a sense of darkness and abandonment it is not something that is outside the history and experiences of God’s people. People suffer enough without the ascription of forms of spiritual stigma that stand at odds with God’s loving presence and God’s apparent absence that we encounter throughout scripture.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder is a complex and disorienting phenomenon that can have a devastating impact upon individuals and their families and friends. Professional care is vital to enable a person to cope with their experiences and to live well even in the midst of their troubles. Many people encounter profound spiritual experiences during the more elated stages of bipolar disorder. Some feel remarkably close to God so much so that coming down can be disappointing. It is tempting to suggest that the spiritual experiences and closeness to God that people feel under such circumstances is “just a part of their condition.” However, religious and spiritual experience does not cease to be religious or spiritual simply because a person has a diagnosis. It is certainly the case that it can be very difficult to make sense of one’s faith life when one is engulphed with euphoria. But later, when life begins to get back to normal, that experience may turn out to be valuable. Perhaps we need to think about retrospective spiritual direction wherein we take time with people to reflect on and explore their unconventional spiritual experiences in a way that brings authenticity, trust and hope even from within the wildest storms.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a difficult set of experiences to live with. However, the inherent difficulties are made considerably worse by misunderstandings and stigma. The assumption very often is that somehow people living with schizophrenia are “Other” than everyone else. This is a false assumption. Take the issue of voice hearing, what some describe as auditory hallucinations. Voice hearing is very common. Jesus, Mohammed, Martin Luther King, Ghandi and Winston Churchill all heard voices. Indeed, when you look at the research there are more people who hear voices and live outside of professional care than there are within it. So, whilst voice hearing is often held up as a defining factor that marks out people with schizophrenia as different and worthy of stigmatisation, the facts are quite different. There may be a continuum of voice hearing, but we all sit somewhere along its trajectory.
Importantly, people living with schizophrenia need exactly the same things as everyone else does. One of the people who participated in the book, Allen, lived with schizophrenia. He told me about the day he got his diagnosis. “It made me feel really sad. I thought my life was over. I’ll never do anything now.” Just receiving the diagnosis made him feel, hopeless. He took the bus home. On the bus he met a woman with whom he had travelled on various previous occasions. He thought she was his friend. He told her about his diagnosis. She got up, got off the bus and they never spoke again. When he got home, Allen told his mom “The doctor says I am a schizophrenic. My life is finished.” His mom looked at him and said: “Allen, you’re not a schizophrenic. You are Allen and I love you.” Love drives out fear and helps us to hold onto ourselves in times of trouble. Allen’s mom models the central dynamic of what the churches’ response should look like. The fact that it is not always that way is tragic.
ERB: As one with my own moderate mental health challenges and with loved ones who also have their own challenges, I was particularly moved by the book’s conclusion in which you reflect on the possibility of healing. You emphasize that healing should be distinguished from curing and that the crux of healing is enabling people “to remain connected to Jesus at all times and in all places.” Can you briefly describe what healing might look like for those who face significant mental health challenges?
JS: The temptation within a highly medicalized society such as we find in the Western world, is to assume that health should be gauged by the absence of illness. However, as one reflects on Scripture, it becomes clear that truly healthy people are those who find their rest in God. Moses wasn’t cured of his stutter and Paul did not find healing for his thorn in the flesh. They found their true health in their fragility, their true wellness in the enduring love of God. Even the gospel healing stories when read theologically reveal a deep intention to reveal who Jesus is and to reconnect people with God, self and community. True healing then comes through being with one another in such a way as to stay connected with God in the midst of our trials and tribulations. Many people living with mental health challenges will have their unconventional experiences for all of their lives. But that does not mean they are to be seen as always being ill. Mental health is not the absence of symptoms or distress. Rather it is the presence of God. Mental health care occurs when all of us together strive to ensure that we all continue to hold on to God even in the midst of the wildest storms.
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C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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