Mental health and Christian spirituality

On the podcast this week, the Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley is interviewed about Struggling with God: Mental health and Christian spirituality, which she co-wrote with C. H. Cook and John Swinton. The book is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. She is in conversation with Sarah Meyrick.

Anne Holmes has written this month’s book club essay about the book.

Struggling with God focuses on the mental-health challenges facing Christians, and looks at how these issues relate to spirituality, prayer, and church life. This is an accessible book by three academics. The authors address the stigma attached to mental health in church communities, and look at the problems arising from some church settings in which mental health is connected with a lack of faith. Each of the six chapters ends with a biblical reflection with questions for individual or group study.

Struggling with God is published by SPCK at £14.99 (Church Times Bookshop £13.49); 978-0-281–08641-2.

Dr Hamley, who is the Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, is speaking at the Church Times Festival of Preaching in September.

Sarah Meyrick is a novelist. Her latest novel is Joy and Felicity (Sacristy Press, 2021). 

The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. 

Sign up to receive the free Book Club email once a month. Featuring discussion questions, podcasts and discounts on each book: churchtimes.co.uk/newsletter-signup

Discuss this month’s book at facebook.com/groups/churchtimesbookclub

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast platforms. Music for the podcast is by Twisterium.