Hope in the Midst of Crisis and Mental Health Challenges with Dr. John Swinton

Warning: This episode mentions schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and suicide.

We speak with John Swinton, Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

John Swinton has worked in mental health care for many years and is now a professor of theology. He brings together a compassionate understanding of mental health and illness with a hopeful understanding of faith and what it means to live well. What could it look like to know “abundant life” while living with a diagnosis of mental illness? What might it look like to know life to the full amidst ongoing, but undiagnosed struggles around mental health?

Swinton offers a humanizing and hopeful way of seeing the “other”, a way that is non-polarizing and shows how we are in solidarity with others, those of different race, politics, ability and understanding.

The pressure to keep up and to be “compulsively cheerful” in our lives can be debilitating. Swinton shows us the value and beauty of “slowness, gentleness, dependence, vulnerability, un-competitiveness, trustfulness and restfulness.”

Materials and links referenced in this episode

John’s books:

Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges

Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship

Regent College course, “Dementia: Living in the Memories of God”, May 10-14

VST course, “Living Faithfully With Mental Health Challenges: Why Theology Matters”, July 12-16

VST Public Lecture, “The “Hidden” Side Effects of COVID 19”, July 13

When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, T.M. Luhrmann

The Bible and Mental Health: Towards a Biblical Theology of Mental Health, a collection of essays from authors including Walter Brueggemann and John Swinton.