Chapter Contributor: Rev. Dr. Chris Pritchett (PCUSA), co-author of On Retreat with Henri Nouwen

Correspondence Featuring the Rev. Dr. Richard B. Steele (UMC) of Seattle Pacific University, co-author of Christian Ethics and Nursing Practice

Foreword writer: Rev. Lindsay Vernor (pastor, writer, a wife, mother of two, and dear friend)

“As the Scriptures invite the church to rejoice with those who rejoice and join in the struggle with those who are struggling, this act of compassionate presence is not about having all the answers, but a loving solidarity refusing to allow persons to suffer in suffocating solitary anonymity. This book invites those who suffer to find hope and others to embrace those who struggle with loving hospitality. With a Wesleyan lens, salvation invites a full healing of all aspects of a person’s existence. Moreover, mental health is not only an individual problem, it is a struggle for all humanity. Read and be challenged and encouraged.”

Brent Peterson, Co-Author of Backside of the Cross and Dean of the College of Theology and Christian Ministries at NNU

Approach

I propose applying John Wesley’s holistic and integrative approach to Christianity in the service of mental health recovery and maintenance. I am not writing as a professional, but rather as someone with lived experience as a Christian who holds MA degrees in literature with a research focus on trauma, psychoanalysis, and mental illness.

“This book displays the author’s deep Christian faith, her fierce moral earnestness, her gentle and gentling love for people who suffer, and her extraordinary honesty about her own experience of emotional challenges and the journey toward wholeness. It is buttressed by a wide-ranging erudition that is completely free of pedantic nit-picking and self-proclaimed “expertise”. She has discerned her own limits and stays within them—but for that very reason she invites readers to face and share their own stories with confidence, greatly expanding the conversation about the relationship between faith and mental illness in many fruitful directions.”

Richard B. Steele, Co-Author of Christian Ethics and Nursing Practice and Professor of Moral and Historical Theology, Seattle Pacific University