In The Cerulean Soul: A Relational Theology of Depression, Peter Bellini aims to provide a Christian theological foundation for academics and professionals who care for persons experiencing depression (5). To do so, Bellini skillfully draws upon a wide range of disciplines—including historical theology, philosophy, disability studies, and medicine—to investigate the phenomenon of depression theologically. Given the historical diversity of human experiences of depression, Bellini acknowledges the complexity of defining depression (and related cognates) and employs the term melancholia as a “general taxonomic category” to refer to “a disorder of despondency in body, mood, mind, and behavior throughout time and space” (20-21).
Throughout the book, Bellini emphasizes the correlation between various models of mental disorders and underlying anthropologies. In light of the predominance of biological models of depression rooted in modern physicalist anthropology, often to the exclusion of theological interpretations of depression, Bellini searches for nonreductive, explanatory models that are compatible with a theological approach (15). Bellini’s thorough review of interdisciplinary models of disease, illness, and disability provides a compact orientation to a complicated set of issues and sets the stage for subsequent theological reflection. Readers familiar with classic debates between medical and social models of disability will especially appreciate Bellini’s nuanced placement of depression and mental disorder into conversation with disability studies as well as natural and social sciences.
Having stressed the importance of underlying anthropological theory for models of mental disorder, Bellini turns to theological anthropology in search of a theological model of depression (chapter 3). Through a survey of scripture and the Christian tradition, Bellini identifies and critiques three traditional models of the imago Dei (image of God)—substantive, structural, and functional—before arriving at his own relational model. In line with his relational approach, Bellini identifies three theological types of melancholia corresponding to three relational states between God and humanity: creation, fall, and new creation. First is the natural or existential type, emerging from human contingency and limitation as created beings (87-90). Second is the consequential type, a reflection of sin, alienation, and disorder resulting from the fall (90-92). Third is the purgative type, a form of spiritual alienation and despondency that enables deeper spiritual growth (92-93).
To illustrate each of these theological types of melancholia, Bellini selects representative figures from the Christian tradition. Grounding his discussion of the natural type (chapter 5), Bellini explicates Søren Kierkegaard’s and Paul Tillich’s conceptions of existential anxiety as structural to human freedom and being, respectively. As representatives of the consequential type (chapter 6), Bellini highlights desert father Evagrius Ponticus’ writings on acedia (mental sloth or boredom) as a result of demonic activity and 20th century Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar’s conception of anxiety as a result of sin. For the purgative type (chapter 7), Bellini explores the writings of St. John of the Cross on the “dark night of the soul”: a pedagogical form of despondency, characterized by seeming divine abandonment, spiritual darkness, and sensory privation in pursuit of mystical union with God (136). Through such careful historical work, Bellini’s theological typology of melancholia helpfully demonstrates the variety of interpretive possibilities within the Christian tradition when reflecting upon the experiences of depression and mental disorder.
In his final two chapters, Bellini’s mode of theological reflection shifts from primarily historical to constructive. In response to the question “Does God get depressed?” (chapter 8), Bellini surveys classical and modern debates on the incarnation and divine (im)passibility (149). Bellini ultimately arrives at a Chalcedonian formulation of the incarnation, allowing him to affirm that “Christ our Mediator took on our mental disorders that we might find peace and salvation in his name” (166). In chapter 9, Bellini concludes with a Trinitarian reflection on how the “missions of Son and the Spirit mediate healing and salvation in the three relational states and their corresponding theological types of mental disorders” (177). For example, in response to natural melancholia, Jesus Christ brings healing as mediator and advocate through the incarnation, taking on the conditions that allow for anxiety and depression to surface—“the nihil of contingency, freedom to choose, temptation, and natural environmental conditions” (182). Bellini applies this same method of Trinitarian reflection to the remaining two types of melancholia. In response to consequential melancholia, Christ and Spirit offer healing through Christlike transformation, forgiveness, and adoption—personally and societally, now and not yet (198-203). Finally, in response to purgative melancholia, Christ and Spirit offer healing through divine friendship in the midst of estrangement from God, self, and others (205-211).
The Cerulean Soul is a significant contribution to historical and constructive theology, and in particular to the field of disability theology, which has at times emphasized physical and intellectual disabilities to the exclusion of psychiatric disabilities. Given the admittedly “philosophical, theological, and technical” nature of the book, some readers may desire more narrative reflection (whether first or third person) or practical application to ministry—in particular, to pastoral care (5). However, this is hardly a limitation of Bellini’s work, but rather a sign that Bellini has laid the theological foundation he aimed to, generating novel insights, theological claims for contestation and critique, and important questions in need of further research.
Kevin Lazarus is a PhD student in the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University.
Kevin Lazarus
Date Of Review:
February 17, 2023