Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: Marcel Strauß (freely available via Unsplash)

Since May is mental health awareness month, it seems like a good time to talk about a faith-based approach to mental health. This is an important topic not only because mental health is vitally important to our well-being as individuals and as a society as a whole, but also because mental illness is arguably more stigmatized within the Christian community than it is within the broader community. And that stigma seems to be based on misguided views of how mental health works and of what the Bible actually says about mental health practices.

There is a contingent within the broader Christian community that views mental health issues as a sign of a lack of faith and that considers mindfulness and other psychotherapeutic techniques as unnecessary at best and as heretical at worst  My goal is to show that the exact opposite is true: mental health issues are a sign of a broken world and are no more to be stigmatized than are physical health issues (i.e., not stigmatized at all; just a brokenness that needs to be fixed, a hurt that needs healing); and not only are mindfulness and psychotherapeutic practices necessary for a healthy life, but they are actually supported—no, more than that, mandated—by Scripture.

In part 1 of this series, I’ll begin with an overview on why there’s tension between psychology and faith and, from there, discuss what a proper, integrated view of mental health should look like. Building on the tension discussed in part 1, part 2 will address the Christian stigma around mental health, what I think has caused it, and what a healthier Christian approach to dealing with mental illness should be. Part 3 will address mindfulness practices, their applications to mental health, and whether or not they’re biblical.

Science vs. Religion

At its core, science is the search for empirical truths (i.e., facts). Through testing and observing, we learn new facts, gain more knowledge, and better understand how the world works. God, who created us as rational, inquisitive beings, wouldn’t have allowed us the cognitive capacity to develop the scientific method and use it to study His creation if He didn’t want us to learn things that way. As such, to deny science is disrespectful to the God of all knowledge.

At its core, religion is the search for truth itself. Through studying and meditating on Scripture—which is Truth—we learn about God, about who we are in Him, and about how the world works and how we ought to live in it. If God didn’t want us to learn through this direct revelation, He wouldn’t have given us Scripture. And He certainly wouldn’t have come to earth as Jesus, the Word made flesh. As such, to deny Scripture is to deny God Himself.

Thus, both domains aim to discover and proclaim truth and are valid sources of truth and knowledge; they are not at odds with one another. Moreover, “God is not a god of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33), meaning that when science is conducted correctly and when Scripture is interpreted correctly, the two should not contradict one another, but rather, will complement one another.

Scripture is not exhaustive; it does not speak about every matter that ever has been or ever will be. (It’s principles and wisdom can be applied more generally, but it says nothing, for example, about how machines work. So, while we should seek Biblical wisdom in how to use machines, we should not consult the Bible on the specifics of metallurgy or hydraulics.) Science, however, can teach us about at least some of these things. Conversely, science is limited by its empirical nature; it cannot provide guidance on matters that are beyond empirical observation. Scripture, however, does have things to say about such rational, transcendental, and metaphysical matters. So we need both. To ignore one in order to exalt the other further is not only a failure to do what God created us to do, but is folly and will result in limited knowledge.

With that in mind, let’s examine mental health through the lenses of both science and Scripture.

What Is the Mind?

Just like we might nowadays refer to having gut feelings or to loving someone with all our heart, the Biblical writers used such terms to refer to what we would consider to be the mind. While metaphorical, such language gets at the reality that the mind and body are connected—so connected, in fact, that emotions can feel very visceral, as though stemming from our heart or gut.

Modern science has shown us the literal truth that underlies this metaphorical reality: that it is in fact the brain that houses the mind. That’s where cognition happens, memories are stored, emotions are processed, and more. As I remember hearing (or reading…?) once upon a time, the mind is what the brain does. Or, said another way, if the brain is the hardware, the mind is the software. So without a brain, we have no mind. And because the brain is a physical part of our body, our mind therefore depends on the body.

But it goes both ways. Neuronal firing changes the chemistry and physiology of the brain. When a neural pathway activates, that pathway is strengthened, and others might even be weakened. This means that each time you think a particular thought, you’re making your brain more efficient at thinking that thought. Therefore, even as the mind depends on the brain, the activity and structure of the brain depend on—or are at least profoundly affected by—the mind.

This idea that we can change the brain by changing what and how we think is vitally important in the pursuit of mental wellness. The failure of modern Christianity to understand and teach this aspect of the mind-brain connection has resulted in misguided approaches to dealing with mental illness, which, in turn, has likely fueled the devastating stigma around mental illness in this community.

The Mind Is the Battleground

The reason that understanding the mind-brain connection—and, specifically, the aspect that the mind changes the brain—is so important is because the mind is where we wage our greatest battles and do our greatest spiritual work.

God is not a physical being, so we cannot relate to Him through physical means. We must relate to Him with our minds, through the connection given by the Holy Spirit. As Paul writes of this connection, “those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5) and “[God] who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit” (Romans 8:27). As such, just as the mind and body are inextricably linked, so are the mind and the Spirit. This also means that spiritual growth is inextricably linked with mental-emotional growth.

Paul understood this when he penned the well-known verses in Romans 7 about the inner war between sin and his mind:

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. […] So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
Romans 7:14, 21–23

In this context, “flesh” refers not to our flesh-and-blood physical bodies, but to our broken, sin-corrupted human natures that we inherited from the Fall. As part of that brokenness, we have disease, both physical and mental. We have hurt and pain and trauma, which often repeat themselves in dangerous generational patterns. We have addiction and depression and anxiety, which can have profound holds over us.

Paul speaks more about the nature of this metaphysical battle in the well-known armor of God passage:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12

In this context, “flesh” refer to literal bodily flesh. His point being that we wage a battle against spiritual forces, who are not physical; as such, the only way to wage that battle is in our minds. That’s why our spiritual armor consists of mental constructs: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word.

A Comprehensive Approach

Scripture is therefore clear that our battle against our brokenness—against the flesh, against the spiritual forces that would try to destroy us—is waged in the mind. And science and Scripture are clear that our minds and bodies are mutually interconnected. As such, a proper approach to mental health must consider that achieving mental wellness (i.e., overcoming mental illness and building healthy mental habits) must be done through mental work, all while acknowledging that such mental work affects the physical substrate of the brain upon which such work relies.

In other words, it should be the same approach as with physical health: do the work of healthy habits and trust that the changes will happen (though it may take some time to see the results).

So, how might this approach—or, better said, how might the failure to understand this approach—lead to a stigma, you might ask? Good question. Read on in part 2 to find out.

Yours truly,
D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D.
Renaissance Man and Abundant Life Liver