Overview

A theologically and scientifically engaged exploration of modern mental health care The current model of mental health care doesn't see people: it sees sets of symptoms that need fixing. While modern psychiatry has improved many patients' quality of life, it falls short in addressing their relational and spiritual needs. As a theologian and practicing psychiatrist, Warren Kinghorn shares a Christian vision of accompanying those facing mental health challenges. Kinghorn reviews the successes and limitations of modern mental health care before offering an alternative paradigm of healing. Based in the theology of Thomas Aquinas, this model of personhood affirms four truths: We are known and loved by God. We are creatures made of earth who are formed in community. We are wayfarers on a journey. We are called not to control, but to wonder, love, praise, and rest. Drawing on theological wisdom and scientific evidence, Kinghorn reframes our understanding of mental health care from fixing machines to attending fellow wayfarers on the way to the Lord's feast. With gentle guidance and practical suggestions, Wayfaring is an essential resource for pastors and practitioners as well as for Christians who seek mental health care.

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Reviews

"""Warren Kinghorn introduces a powerful, relational framework for how we think about, speak about, and approach mental health. He masterfully integrates narrative storytelling with historical content, philosophical concepts, and clinical insights gained from his years of experience as a psychiatrist, theologian, and fellow wayfarer. This timely book will dramatically improve how we approach mental health and how we relate to one another as human beings and children of God."" --Nii A. Addy, Albert E. Kent Associate Professor of Psychiatry and associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology, Yale School of Medicine ""In Wayfaring, Warren Kinghorn gifts readers with a clear-eyed Thomistic contemplation on modern mental health care, courageously and self-effacingly plumbing the depths of his experience as a psychiatrist and theologian to invite all persons and caregivers enduring mental health challenges on a healing journey toward 'participation in blessing.' Through storytelling, meditation on Scripture, and incisive theological analysis, Dr. Kinghorn companions with luminary Thomas Aquinas to invite suffering wayfarers on a quest through and beyond rugged mental-illness terrains into the light-filled joy of healing, belonging, and worship."" --Andrew Michel, associate professor of psychiatry, Belmont University ""As a person who cares for people with mental illness, I have been waiting for this book. Wayfaring is a learned account of how mental illness is not a problem for one person to fix but a challenge we can navigate by walking together. Reading this book, I was reminded about how we are all formed for relationship, all fellow creatures gifted with a profound freedom. We can accompany each other on the journey because we are all wayfarers on our way to the feast."" --Abraham M. Nussbaum, chief education officer, Denver Health; professor of psychiatry and assistant dean of graduate medical education, University of Colorado ""Warren Kinghorn is a wise and gracious wayfaring guide. With expertise in theology and psychiatry, Kinghorn competently and compassionately walks alongside us--clinicians and clients, Christians and the curious--all who are longing to live with greater mental health and flourishing on our journey to God. Kinghorn counsels us to journey with others, keeping the ultimate end in mind, attentive to whom and what we love, asking what is needed now, while remaining open to wonder and surprise. A feast awaits."" --Charlotte V. O. Witvliet, professor of psychology, Hope College ""What would psychiatry be like if it were based on the understanding of humanity of Thomas Aquinas, in contrast to the secular understandings of humanity that currently dominate the West's social imaginary? We are given a remarkable sample of such a project in this wise and winsome trail guide to 'participation in blessing' with God. Drawing deftly from the best of modern clinical literature, it nonetheless forges a distinctly different path, guided by the Christian intellectual and soul-care tradition, particularly the work of its greatest pre-modern developmental psychologist and spiritual director. Oh Lord, how long we have waited for this gift!"" -- Eric L. Johnson, professor of Christian psychology, Houston Christian University ""Through stories and insights combined with the deep theology of Thomas Aquinas, Kinghorn reframes mental health care in a theological vein, guiding us away from isolation and shame toward the embrace of community and the divine love of Jesus. . . . This book is a beautiful contribution to theology, a gift to the church, and a powerful reminder of the soulfulness that all good mental health care should aim for."" --John Swinton, from the foreword"

Author Information

Warren Kinghorn is a psychiatrist and theological ethicist whose work centers on the role of religious communities in caring for persons with mental health problems and on how Christians engage practices of modern health care. Jointly appointed to the faculties of Duke Divinity School and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Duke University Medical Center, he is codirector of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School and practices psychiatry at the Durham VA Medical Center.

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