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.

You’re listening to the first episode of ‘The Chaise Lounge Theologian’ a podcast which explores a systematic theology of mental health. For more information about the ideas this podcast might cover and what the podcast name is all about, you can listen to the introductory episode. This Episode One has the rather prosaic title of ‘What are we Talking about and How are We Doing It?’ The aim of this episode is to think through exactly what mental health means, all the different elements within it and to start thinking about ideas within mental health and psychology that connect with biblical ideas. To round out the podcast I’ll give a brief explanation of what a systematic theology is about so that the process is clear.

To begin, I thought I’d play a bit of word association or free association with the phrase ‘mental health’ and attempt to do some stream of consciousness writing with the phrase. I know, I’ve barely begun and I’m already getting Freudian again. I’ll try to avoid this in future. At any rate, I set the timer for a few minutes and just started writing. Here’s what I wrote:

Mental health, depression, anxiety, panic attack, hyperventilation, optimist, pessimist, Puddleglum, feeling down, blue, overwhelmed, bitterness, frustration, resentment, hurt, pain, bullying, suicide, self-harm, mental fog, resilience, fill your mind, empty your mind, growth mindset, positive thinking, subconscious, lying awake at night, heart palpitations, peer pressure, isolation, alienation, rejection, neurons, synapses, antidepressants, therapy, counselling, psychologist, shrink, wellbeing, welfare, yoga, Pilates, serotonin…

Reading that back out loud now, I’m intrigued that it took me that long to get to serotonin and also why dopamine isn’t even there. I’m also even mildly concerned that whilst the word ‘psychologist’ is there, I didn’t just say the word ‘psychology’. Psychoanalyse that if you wish…

But let me provide a more formal definition now and use a dictionary to help.

My Oxford English Dictionary defines mental with two entries. Firstly ‘relating to, done by, or occurring in the mind’ or secondly, ‘relating to disorders or illnesses of the mind.’ When it comes to the word health, their definition is ‘the state of being free from illness or injury’. To this they also add ‘a person’s mental or physical condition.’

Unsurprisingly the OED has served us quite well with those definitions. However, a very closely related word to mental health is psychology so it’s a good idea to look up that one in the OED as well. This is their definition of psychology: 1) the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour in a given context.

That first definition is quite interesting as it identifies pretty quickly that there’s more to it than just the brain. It references the mind and its functions and even a basic understanding of biology understands that the brain is connected to the spinal cord and that they form the Central Nervous System which is responsible for all number of signals being sent around the body which impact more than just behaviour. But also interesting in that definition, is the phrase tagged on at the end ‘behaviour in a given context’ and I think that’s something to consider as we explore what the Bible says about mental health. We are in the context of religion and spirituality. We are thinking about the brain, the body and behaviour with a faith-based lens, a scriptural lens. This is a religious context. And religious and faith-based contexts and communities are a culture within themselves. And cultures have their own sets of behaviours. Something to consider.

2)The second definition for psychology in the OED is ‘the mental characteristics or attitude of a person’ Again, this is interesting as the Bible often encourages its adherents to have the mind of Christ. What does that mean though? Was Jesus always sane? Was Jesus always in perfect mental health? Christians claim that Jesus never sinned but if we jump to say that Jesus was always in perfect mental health are we thinking that perfect mental health and sinlessness are the same thing? Is that OK? Or more to the point, is that correct? If – and notice that I’m saying if – If Jesus experienced periods of say, insanity, whilst on earth, would that be problematic? I think we do well to not answer that one too quickly.

But let’s simplify this a bit.

Thinking about my very first lesson with my Year 9 psychology students, right at the start of the year, it’s in this class that we have to start thinking about well, what do we mean when we say that we’re studying psychology? Because it’s Year 9, I go with a fairly simple but hopefully helpful definition. Here it is:

Psychology is about the brain, the body and behaviour. The three Bs. Brain, Body and Behaviour. We know that mental health is obviously strongly connected to the mind, but, to use a bigger word, we know that there’s somatic – or bodily – related elements also when we are ill. The mind effects our body, sometimes physically.

Here’s a personal example and a moment of vulnerability, with which I’m OK. I’ve had enough instances of depression in my life to have identified what the physical indicator is for me, that I’m depressed. In fact, I’ve found that sometimes I’m less in tune with myself mentally or emotionally and it’s actually the physical or somatic symptom that lets me know I’m suffering another episode of depression.

What is the symptom? My back hurts. I’ll wake up one morning, be lying in bed and think “Why does my back hurt?” and as soon as I’ve asked the question, I’ll know what the answer is already.

So mental health or psychology, is connected to the brain, also to the body and also to behaviour. When I’m teaching Year 9, I’ll summarise behaviour as ‘What people do and Why they do it’.

Simplistic again, but also, hopefully helpful. I think it does tap into a few ideas that are pretty core in psychology, especially the ideas of learned behaviour and memory, stimulus and response, repetition and training, as well as the critical topic of motivation. And what about the psychology of love? What does the Bible have to say about that? Mental Health. A peripheral biblical topic no longer with that one.

And if you’re listening and you’ve got some Biblical knowledge already you might want to listen to that list again and start thinking about parts of the Bible that come to mind when exploring those ideas, because the Bible actually has a lot to say about them. Here’s the list again: learned behaviour and memory, stimulus and response, repetition and training, motivation and love.

Motivation is a topic that also brings in some ideas of biblical ethics, but I’m getting way ahead of myself with that one. I tend to do that. Must be something about my mind…

So far, I’ve explored the ‘what’ of this podcast series. I’ve explored what we mean by mental health. I certainly haven’t given a conclusive or all-encompassing definition, but hopefully it’s been a sufficient starting point and provided some metaphorical food for thought.

So, that’s the ‘what’. But as an English teacher I’m not satisfied with just the ‘what’. Any time you write an extended response for an English teacher it’s always the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that they’re asking for. We’re so demanding.

This last part of this episode will explore exactly that: how am I going to explore this topic of mental health? I’ll be doing a systematic theology. What, you might ask, is that?

A systematic theology is what you do when you explore a topic within the Bible. Certainly not the only way to consider a topic, but as you can tell by the name, there’s a system to it which is surely helpful.

Because the reality is that the topic you are exploring is probably not going to be in the one place in the bible, you’ll be jumping all over the Bible.

So firstly, the system is going to treat every section of the bible that we look at with an acknowledgement of the context of the passage. I’ll need to look at the Who, What, When and Where. And of course the situation surrounding the event needs to be explored too. Without context there will be confusion. So that’s part of the system.

Genre is also part of the system. The Bible is a large book with a lot of genres. Some people might think of The Bible as just one genre – religious – but that’s not the case at all. There is poetry and song, proverbial sayings, apocalyptic literature, general narrative or recount and data collections, such as genealogies. It’s not all the same, so the genre needs to be considered when interpreting the section of the Bible.

More generally, the structure of any given bible passage needs to be explored – as you would any text – to see if there is any important piece of information in the structure. Similarly to this, there may be repetition of phrases or words that hold important understandings. Those things need to be systematically explored also.

But a Systematic Theology is not the only way to explore the Bible, there are other structures that can be used, such as Biblical Theology. And when I do a systematic theology, I also work my ideas through a Biblical Theology. Now there are pages and pages written about Biblical Theology – and Systematic Theology for that matter too – but I’m keeping things as simple as possible. For the sake of these podcasts, consider Biblical Theology as a structure that considers the centre of the Bible to be Jesus, his death and resurrection – otherwise known as what we celebrate at Easter. Everything that is explored about mental health, ultimately has to be read through a ‘Jesus is Central’ lens. With that guiding principle, you’re more likely to understand your topic through the perspective of the Bible, because unsurprisingly, Christianity is all about Christ; which is another way of saying Jesus.

So Biblical Theology goes into the mix as well. Biblical Theology. Context, Genre, Structure, – and also, general narrative structure.

There are plenty of little passages in the bible that have a narrative structure. Because they’re in the Bible, Christians believe these are non-fiction narratives, but they are narratives all the same. It is a pretty well-known fact that every story has a beginning, a middle and an end and the Bible is no different. Overarchingly, it’s a redemptive narrative, a non-fiction narrative of redemption. Redemption from slavery to love.

And because like all narratives, this redemptive narrative has a beginning, middle and end, I will predominantly be moving chronologically through the Bible. Because that seems rather systematic, don’t you think?

So in the next podcast, I’ll be taking it all the way back to the Garden of Eden and exploring the first few chapters of Genesis.

But until then, I pray that wherever you are and however your mental health is today, that you know for sure that the God of the Bible is a trustworthy God. There is so much anxiety in our society today but with the God of the Bible we can stay in perfect peace. Because the God of the Bible cares for us and provides us with all that we need, even more than we expect. His resources are unlimited and such a thought is not too good to be true. It is true. As it says in Ephesians, God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”. You just have to ask.

Until next time, keep looking up to God.

Podcast Backing Track: “Pure” by Matt Wigdon. Licence purchased from Soundstripe