Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom: Love, Community, and the Lived Experience of Mental Health Challenges

This course will provide a unique blend of theology and practice focused around the lived experience of people with mental health challenges. We will develop a hospitable interdisciplinary dialogue within which different dimensions of the healing process of mental health care can come together with a view to exploring the theology, psychology and lived experience of mental health challenges. The intention is to enable students to become faithful and hospitable carers and better theologians, who in a real sense continue the healing work of Jesus in their own spheres of vocation. Issues explored will include: depression, anxiety, psychosis, bipolar disorder, trauma, Christian community, healing, friendship, hospitality, the problem of evil, and the centrality of faithful interdisciplinary conversations that seek to care with rather than just for people living with mental health challenges.