EPISODE 0 – The Chaise Lounge Theologian: Intro
Disclaimer – this podcast does not contain any advice for mental health concerns. If you have mental health concerns contact your GP and seek their advice. Know that I am praying for your healing.
Hello… you’re listening to the introductory episode of a podcast series called “The Chaise Lounge Theologian”. Now you’re probably familiar with the phrase armchair theologian, or armchair historian or armchair philosopher. Take your pick of any profession, the phrase meaning someone who has an interest in or likes to dabble in the area but doesn’t really have any rigorous qualifications or expertise.
This podcast series will be exploring mental health from a biblical perspective. And since the chaise lounge is iconic to psychology or perhaps stereotypically connected to our ideas of talk therapy and psychoanalysis, I needed to get the removalists to get rid of the armchair for me and bring on in the chaise lounge. So feel free to get yourself comfortable on it.
This series explores the topic of mental health from a biblical perspective. It will journey through a systematic theology of mental health, which means it is exploring a topic and ensuring that ultimately the lens through which we view the topic, is shaped by our understanding of what is core and central in the Bible, which is Jesus.
Some topics in the Bible are addressed a lot: such as salvation, righteousness and God’s character. But there’s a whole range of topics including mental health that the Bible doesn’t seem to explore in detail, at least not on the surface level. However, that doesn’t mean we should avoid a topic entirely in relation to the Bible.
However, spoiler alert… the topic mental health falls into the bigger topic of health and sickness and the Bible has A LOT to say about that topic, both literally and metaphorically. So we’re not going out onto a limb with this one, not at all.
Still, a proper systematic theology will understand the topic in accordance with what the Bible says about the topic and also understand how important or unimportant the topic is from the perspective of the Bible. Because we’re wanting the Bible’s perspective it means we also want to know the level of importance that the Bible places on the topic. We want a biblical lens, when we do a systematic theology; not our personal, social, cultural or historical lens. As much as we can manage it, we want to think biblically.
So as we explore the topic of mental health we want to understand the topic of mental health in connection with the topics that the Bible deems important. And as I just said, by connecting this topic to the broader topic of health and sickness, I personally believe that a systematic theology on mental health is so very intricately connected to a core biblical topic of salvation and redemptive history. In fact it may be far more connected to this than some of us perhaps usually acknowledge.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. So let me take a number of steps back…
First of all, who am I, talking about mental health? Am I qualified? Well, whilst I do have some pieces of paper from universities, when it comes to the arena of mental health and psychology I only have pieces of paper at the Graduate Diploma level – shout out to Charles Sturt University for that one. So I am certainly not a clinical psychologist. And whilst I may own a copy of the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, I can’t make any official diagnosis. But I am a teacher and we make unofficial diagnoses all the time. It just goes with the territory of dealing with young people. However, I’ll keep that out of these podcasts.
As a teacher though, the last few years I have taught a psychology elective to Years 9 and 10 that I introduced at my school. I think that’s about all a diploma qualifies you for. But that also has allowed me to explore a number of ideas about psychology in a teaching context and explore core topics in psychology like nature / nurture, motivation and success, constructs of gender as well as mental illness and disorders, including everyone’s favourite thing to do, which is to put on your forensic psychologist’s hat.
But to be clear, these podcasts are not able to and won’t give you any professional advice about your mental health. However, hopefully the psychoeducation, as it’s called, that I do have will help provide a richer understanding of the topic as we look through the pages of the Bible together.
On top of that, I also have my own personal experiences related to mental health, or lack thereof, to bring to the discussion. That includes time spent on anti-depressants, seeing a psychologist and counsellors at various points and a variety of what I’ll broadly label as mental health episodes. Or more to the point, mental ill health episodes, as I feel they should probably be termed. So, I can’t help but have those parts of my personal experience shape what I say and also, I’m sure, I’ll include things that I’ve learnt in clinical sessions perhaps even sub-consciously – thank you Freud.
My apologies for bringing Freud into even the introductory episode, however, he does shape our thinking about mental health and psychology more than many of us might wish, such was the development of psychology in the 20th century. And whilst off the top of my head I can think of a range of Freudian ideas that are probably a complete anathema to biblical ideas, the Bible does include the analysis of dreams. So it’s probably worth going there in the future. And it’s also good to know that God got there long before Freud did, and less weirdly too.
But there’s a whole range of other things we could explore.
When the Bible talks about being made more like Jesus, is that related to personality? Should we bring understanding of different personality types into our thinking about the development of Christian character? Does Carl Jung have something to add to the discussion? Or when we find ourselves not in step with the Spirit are we experiencing incongruence such as what the humanists consider the base block of mental ill health? Or is it something else? And when we talk about having the mind of Christ, can that be impacted by brain chemistry and overarching mental illness and disorders? When we continually struggle with grievous sins, should we get a forensic psychologist to do an assessment of our capability for change, or is that just a cop out and a denial of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives? And what about all the people in the Bible who appear to have mental health issues?
The Psalmists definitely don’t engage in positive psychology at plenty of points in time. And what about that bit in the Old Testament book of Daniel when King Nebuchadnezzar loses all human sensibilities and sanity and lives like a cow. What do we make of that one? Is insanity punishment or discipline from God? Can we possibly think that when we know of many Christians who have suffered terrible mental ill health? A well-known example that comes to mind is the famous British Romantic poet and hymn writer, William Cowper who suffered depression to the point of insanity. What are we to do as believers with the experience of psychosis? And what of people who have a genetic predisposition to poor mental health or specific disorders. Is this an intergenerational curse such as what we hear about in the Old Testament, punishing the children to the third and fourth generation? And what on earth are we to do with those who have experienced abuse at the hands of the church which has perhaps led to lifelong mental health problems.
The more you think about it, there’s so much to explore.
However, in the first episode I’ll do a broad overview of the topic to clarify just what exactly I’m talking about when I say, ‘mental health’. Then I’ll take it all the way back to the beginning in Genesis.
Until then, I hope that however you are feeling today, whenever you stumble across this podcast, that you know what the God of the Bible wants for you and your mental health; which is not anxiety but peace. As it says in the Amplified Version in 2 Timothy:
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].
Until next time, keep looking up to God for He will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are set on Him. Because the insanity of God is that he loves us even more unconditionally than any humanist psychologist could ever manage.
Podcast Backing Track: “Pure” by Matt Wigdon. Licence purchased from Soundstripe