A Word from Bob
There’s been a lot of discussion on Twitter/X about a video from Pastor John MacArthur about mental illness.
While my post does not interact with Pastor MacArthur’s post, my post does seek to offer, in tweet-size bites, my preliminary ponderings on Mental Illness, the Church, and Biblical Counseling.
My Twitter/X Thread
1 A Thread on the Church, Biblical Counseling, and Mental Illness. Lots of current discussion on Christian Twitter/X about mental illness and mental disorder and what a sound, compassionate, comprehensive theological approach (and definition) might look like. Here’s some very initial, preliminary, tweet-size ponderings. What do you think?
2 I have done some more in-depth thinking about Mental Illness and the Church (presented in 2015 at the Annual @ACBC Conference). You can find that paper (as a free PDF) here. As my ACBC presentation paper notes, a biblical/theological approach to mental illness should begin with a theological anthropology (how God designed us), it should continue with an understanding of the fall/hamartiology, it should include an awareness of and engagement with pertinent neuroscience research, it would be wise to include relevant church history, and it should include compassionate, comprehensive ministry to the sufferer.
3 To develop a relevant, real-world, biblical approach, it is vital to develop a biblical understanding of who we are as embodied-souls who live in a fallen world (socially-embedded) in finite and fallen bodies, impacted by our fallen environment, by fallen relationships, by suffering, trauma, sin, and being sinned against, etc. See this link to 112 Biblical Passages on Being Embodied Souls. And see this link for 55 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: The Bible, the Body, the Embodied-Soul, Research, Science, and Neuroscience.
4 With this embodied-soul background, could it be that what we have called “mental illness” might biblically be “fallen embodied-soul existence in a fallen world”? Clunky, yes. But stay with me. We might also call this “fallen brain/body disorder/loss of shalom.”
5 Could this perhaps be part of what Paul is getting at in Romans 8:17-27 where he talks about embodied suffering and the fallen, finite body groaning for glorification—for the day when not only the soul will be made whole, but the flesh—the brain/body complex will be made whole.
6 Some might quickly wonder, “Might this approach ‘excuse sin’? No. This approach is taking sin seriously—a fallen sinful world and finite flesh. Also, it is not saying that a given “embodied-soul disorder” is due (necessarily) to personal sin. It is saying that a given embodied-soul disorder is the result of living in a fallen world in finite, unglorified flesh (brain, body, glands, belly…).
7 Take anxiety for an example. (Here’s a link to some additional thoughts on anxiety and embodied-souls: Anxiety and Our Physical Bodies: God’s Care for Embodied-Souls.) Fallen, finite embodied-soul anxiety disorder—it could have a multitude of complex interrelated “causes.”
8 Some proneness toward hyper-alertness could be part of God uniquely and fearfully and wonderfully created each of us. Some overwhelming anxiety, fear, panic, and phobia could be at least in part the result of living in a fallen body with a fallen brain. It could be, in part, the result of being sinned against and the horrific embodied-soul consequences of suffering and trauma (see the Psalms and many other places where the Bible links being sinned against to painful embodied-soul responses. Some aspects of our anxiety, especially our responses to it, could be related to unwise, unhealthy, and at times sinful choices.
9 This complex, comprehensive theological anthropology thinking about embodied-soul anxiety can help us to be compassionate, empathetic, and understanding. It can help us to avoid the “Bob Newhart Stop It!” approach to treatment. Instead, we engage in a holistic (biblically comprehensive theological anthropology) approach. It avoids what Matthew LaPine rightly labels “emotional voluntarism.” For more on this, see More Than Just Willpower.
10 That approach can legitimately include physiological-based treatment interventions—which are just as “spiritual” as soul-based treatment. See: Of Spirituality and Ice Cubes: A Psalm and a Palm.
11 A comprehensive, compassionate biblical embodied-soul approach will include the whole person (spiritual, social, self-aware, relational, rational, volitional, emotional, physically) who is socially-embedded in a fallen sinful world of suffering and trauma.
12/Done for Now: In summary, I am proposing, or at least publicly pondering, whether it might help us to perceive mental illness as fallen, finite embodied-soul dis-order—with “dis-order” reflecting the loss of shalom, wholeness, integration, and the commensurate groaning-for-glorification that Romans highlights.
Join the Conversation
Thoughts?
What is a compassionate, comprehensive, embodied-soul biblical understanding of mental illness?
How do you biblically/theologically think through the issue of mental illness, mental disorder, mental health?
