Luminaries / John Swinton / Mental Health, Disability, and "Banal Evil"

Theology Mill

The Luminaries series is a collection of interviews with premier thinkers working in the theological academy and the church.

Professor John Swinton is a renowned practical theologian and the Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen.

On this episode, Dr. Swinton and I discuss his career prior to entering the theological academy, a theology of mental health challenges, the experience of time for those living with disabilities, and confronting the problems of both “radical evil” and “banal evil.”

PODCAST LINKS:

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Blog post: [coming soon]

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SOURCES MENTIONED:

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

———. The Origins of Totalitarianism.

Hull, John M. Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness.

Koyama, Kosuke. Three Mile an Hour God.

Luhrmann, T. M, and Jocelyn Marrow, eds. Our Most Troubling Madness: Case Studies in Schizophrenia across Cultures.

Swinton, John. Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship.

———. Deliver Us from Evil: A Call for Christians to Take Evil Seriously.

———. Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges.

World Health Organization, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.

OUTLINE:

(02:02) – Black tea (with coffee beans), Coke Zero, and (thoughts of) Scotch

(03:30) – From nursing to the theological academy

(07:18) – Distinguishing practical theology as a subdiscipline

(10:26) – Diagnostic descriptors as experienced by diagnosed persons

(15:32) – Problematizing the DSM

(20:31) – Describing the experience of mental health challenges

(24:24) – Living with mental health diagnoses in the West

(30:12) – Advice for those living with mental health challenges

(31:45) – Advice for churches trying to welcome those with mental health challenges

(32:59) – The “temporarily able-bodied”

(35:40) – The speed of Western time and the speed of God’s time

(42:20) – Living in God’s time

(44:47) – “You’ve changed”: personal identity amidst the changes that come with disability

(51:06) – Evil according to Paul the Apostle, Susan Eastman, and Hannah Arendt

(58:57) – Resisting evil