The Marvelous Combat Psychiatric Disability, Martin Luther, and Therapeutic Atonement

Bibliographic Data

ID22112378
AuthorsSamuel J Youngs (0000-0003-0903-2108, Richmont Graduate University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume28
Issue2
Pages132-141
Publication date2024-04-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Disability & Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2331-2521 • E-ISSN: 2331-253X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23312521.2023.2197423
OpenAlexW4362667117
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

Theology and disability studies regularly engage both physical and cognitive impairments, with Peter Bellini’s recent work broadening the field to include even the psychiatric disability of depression (The Cerulean Soul, 2021). Other psychiatric disabilities also stand to be constructively engaged by theological discourse. This study takes up the subjects of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, especially variants which feature specifically religious anxiety, moral scrupulosity, and pathological guilt, illustrating how transactional understandings of forgiveness and atonement can covary with the symptomatology of such conditions, possibly even exacerbating them. In response, I conscript Martin Luther’s provocative but oft-neglected description of Christ’s “marvelous combat with the Law” in order to stage a uniquely “therapeutic” outlook on atonement in which Christ’s passion is rendered as a struggle with the uniquely psychological contours of moral performance and the felt experience of guilt under divine judgment, offering embodied hope to the anxious and scrupulous conscience

Anxiety · Atonement · Conscience · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Forgiveness · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Theology · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology

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