Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom

Name: Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom
Author: John Swinton
ISBN: 9781481324717

Toward a Deeper Practical Theology of Mental Health

by John Swinton

Edited by Angela H. Reed

Series edited by Kimlyn J. Bender

Series: George W. Truett Parchman Lecture Series

Imprint: Baylor University Press

Sales Date: 2025-09-15

172 Pages, 5.00 × 8.00 in

Hardcover
9781481324717
Published: 2025-09-15

$27.99

BUY

Description
Contents
Bio
Praise

What if our well-intentioned efforts to promote mental health inadvertently perpetuate systems that cause mental unwellness? What if the resilience we encourage only equips individuals to endure rather than challenge structures detrimental to their well-being? Why do mental health experiences vary so drastically across cultures, with Western societies seemingly posing the greatest challenges for certain conditions? Against the backdrop of escalating ecological dramas that devastate our world and its climate, do we ever wonder what ecological suffering might imply for our mental health? With this poignant, impassioned book, John Swinton invites us to begin exploring avenues toward addressing these daunting and interrelated issues.

Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom proposes that we think theologically about mental health as a matter of the collective body of human beings and the welfare of creation. Swinton contends that the ways in which we structure creation—relational, social, cultural, political, spiritual—has a profound impact on our mental health. Failing to recognize the broader dimensions of the task of mental healthcare, we might only ease the severity of a pain or a disease without removing the cause and so never offer genuine healing that brings about peaceable connection with God, self, others, and creation.

Guided by the biblical concept of shalom—a form of peace crucial for our understanding of mental health(care)—Swinton takes into consideration the complex and creational roots of human psychological suffering and offers a model of human flourishing defined not by the absence of pain, suffering, and distress, but rather by the presence of God. Such a model seeks not only to deal with the immediacy of the human plight but also to view it within the context of Jesus’s cosmic mission to reconcile himself with all things. And so, Swinton contends, as we broaden our conception of mental wholeness to encompass creation at large—the land under our feet, the air in our lungs, the geographical places in which we live and love, as well as the spheres of politics, economics, and culture—we begin the hard and necessary work of repairing dissonance, instability, and mental ill-health. This book does not offer a comprehensive strategy, but it does gesture toward a more holistic, more Christoform theology of mental health. Every journey begins with a first step.

In a time when mental health concerns and therapeutic pursuits are everywhere—like our social media feeds—we need a faithful and wise guide. There is no one more fit to lead us than John Swinton. With his usual depth, creativity, and pastoral sensitivity, Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom adds to Swinton’s important corpus. The pastoral and theological insights of this book will form and direct you.
~Andrew Root, Professor and Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary, and author of Evangelism in an Age of Despair.

John Swinton invites us to reimagine mental health through a theological vision of shalom, peace, and yet much more than 'just' peace. Mental health, according to this vision, is inherently relational and theological, being concerned with peace within and between minds, peace with creation, and peace with God. Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom offers a siren call for decommodification, kindness, and compassion in mental healthcare.
~Christopher C.H. Cook, Emeritus Professor, Insitute for Medical Humanities, Durham University

John Swinton's new text, Seeking Sanctuary, Finding Shalom, offers readers a well-researched and beautifully written synthesis of theological insight and cutting-edge theory in psychology. His work provides a vision for mental health based upon a biblical understanding of shalom, as it is manifest in peace with oneself, with others, with creation, and with God. Swinton also raises significant overarching issues about mental health in the context of the broader culture, asking the necessary question, 'Could Western culture be bad for our mental health?' He highlights the role of social injustice in the rates of mental health impairment as well as market influences on the business of mental health treatment. His work is theory-rich and grounded in eschatological hope, at the same time offering practical responses to the challenge of understanding mental health in a Western context.
~Marcia Web, Department of Psychology, Seattle Pacific University

When Pope John XXIII began the Second Vatican Council, he is said to have thrown open a window in order to ‘let the fresh air of the Spirit blow through.’ I think that John Swinton opened his window when he was writing this book. With characteristic insight, Swinton connects the dots between the personal, interpersonal, political, economic, and ecological causes of mental illness. In so doing, he shows how moving from an understanding of mental health as the absence of mental illness to the idea of mental health as shalom overcomes alienating dichotomies, allowing us to see more clearly the systemic causes of mental illness and help us to overcome them.
~Tasia Scrutton, Associate Professor in Philosophy and Religion, University of Leeds