Abstract
To attempt to produce a volume that comprehensively and authoritatively tackles such a huge topic as mental health and ‘biblical theology’ is nigh on impossible, and the authors of The Bible and Mental Health have carefully indicated that their volume is only a start in this complex area. Nonetheless, this is a helpful book at a quite apposite time, and while it can hope only to offer brief glimpses into this area, it manages to do so, at least in great part, without falling into the trap of either attempting to medicalize Scripture or brushing over the more uncomfortable elements. Featuring a multiplicity of voices, from a whole host of different disciplines, this book is primarily a reflection on Scripture that intentionally reads the Bible through the lens of what we now call mental health. Scripture and modern scientific thinking are very much in dialogue, and while the book makes some concrete recommendations, this is primarily a work of discovery and of asking what the Bible can, and cannot, tell us.
The book is split into three parts, the first of which begins to tease out what the biblical texts can tell us about mental well-being and its relationship to human wholeness. In doing so, it challenges some of our current assumptions about key biblical texts and highlights the importance of narrative in the biblical witness. In the second section, the authors dig more deeply into particular biblical texts, asking questions of what they can tell us and also highlighting how we might best interrogate them. In the third section, that of practical applications, one of the key themes of the book runs through much of the advice – that Scripture is neither crystal clear nor always helpful in every human situation. Throughout the book there is a careful distinction between mental health or well-being and mental illness; scriptural narrative offers a clearer picture of the former, which then helps us think more clearly when considering possible instances of the latter within the Bible. The Bible offers a rich resource for those suffering mental illness and for pastors, and this book begins to open up both the benefits and the risks of reading it in this light.
Psychiatry is, perhaps, given a bit of a hard time – the modern discipline being rather different from the caricatures that occasionally surface. Possibly the most disappointing element is the lack of attention given to the causes of mental health problems, which are often environmental and societal; biblically rich theologies of liberation have much to offer in this area. Likewise, it is not entirely clear what is meant by a ‘biblical theology’ – the book often makes allusions to ‘Bible-based preaching’, but this is rather a misleading term, given the multifarious ways in which the Bible can be read, as indeed this book makes clear. Perhaps the real (but possibly unintended) gift of this book is that a simple ‘biblical theology’ of mental health is neither possible nor helpful – and, in showing this, it calls the reader to read, reflect and dialogue with Scripture carefully in the light of modern understandings of the human person.