Evangelical anxiety A memoir

Charles Marsh, 1958-

Book - 2022

"For years, Charles Marsh suffered panic attacks and debilitating anxiety. As an Evangelical Christian, he was taught to trust in the power of God and His will. While his Christian community resisted therapy and personal introspection, Marsh eventually knew he needed help. To alleviate his suffering, he made the bold decision to seek medical treatment and underwent years of psychoanalysis. In this spiritual memoir, Marsh tells the story of his struggle to find peace and the dramatic, inspiring transformation that redefined his life and his faith. He examines the tensions between faith and science and reflects on how his own experiences offer hope for bridging the gap between the two. Honest and revealing, Marsh traces the roots of sham...e, examines Christian notions of sex, faith, and mental illness and their genesis, and chronicles how he redefined his beliefs and rebuilt his relationship with his community"--Amazon.com.

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Subjects
Genres
Autobiographies
Published
New York, NY : HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Charles Marsh, 1958- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
x, 246 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9780062862730
  • Part I. Life's Rich Pageant
  • Martin Luther on Prozac
  • Harvard Divinity School: Fall 1981
  • Dry Leaves Tumble Down University Circle
  • Part II. My Rebel Flesh
  • On Fire
  • The Pursuit of a Literary Life
  • Part III. Loyalty to the Event
  • HDS, Redux
  • Christian Anxiety: A Short Theology
  • Part IV. Testimony
  • Charlottesville: The First Sojourn
  • Cathedral Light
  • Outtakes from an Evangelical Analysis
  • Summer in Laurel
  • Years of Wonder and Longing
  • Part V. After Analysis
  • Depression
  • The Grace of the Strong Sin
  • On Christian Counseling
  • Part VI. Quiet Days in Charlottesville
  • Oh, Merton
  • Quiet Days in Charlottesville
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
Review by Booklist Review

Marsh grew up a preacher's kid with an evangelical upbringing in the Jim Crow South, where he suffered from an anxiety disorder. "Of course, I needed Jesus," he says in retrospect. "I also needed professional help. But we [his family] did not do therapy." All of that should have changed when, during his first semester at Harvard Divinity School, Marsh suffered a doozy of a nervous breakdown. "Every defense failed . . . I had lost the capacity for happiness." He soldiered on until he had a second breakdown and finally gave himself over to analysis. Much of the second half of this arresting memoir is devoted to a careful parsing of that experience. Stylishly written, the book demonstrates the author's fondness for offbeat words (jarbled, propaedeutic) and sometimes-obscure literary allusions (Camus). Happily, substance matches style, as Marsh dives into the life of his mind. If it is true that, as he writes, "our lives are a marvelous mystery," readers will be fascinated watching him solve his.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this spirited memoir, Marsh (God's Long Summer), a religious studies professor at the University of Virginia, shares his lifelong struggle to reconcile his mental illness with his evangelical faith. He shares how he developed "trust in God and terror of myself" starting with puberty, when the conflict between his carnal urges and evangelicalism's strict ban on premarital sex racked him with guilt. During Marsh's first semester at Harvard Divinity School, he suffered a nervous breakdown that marked the beginning of years of acute panic. As a young professor, he began seeing a psychotherapist, though "an evangelical in psychoanalysis seemed a contradiction in terms" because the prevailing evangelical position was that mental illness arose from sin and should be treated with prayer and Bible study. Years later, anti-depressants transformed Marsh's condition and he realized that "trusting in the Lord" meant accepting the advice of medical professionals even if it clashed with the church's teachings: "There's no reason to think God wants you wasted and bare ." Dark and sometimes bawdy humor enlivens the proceedings ("The Word made flesh is messy business," he quips after wondering if Jesus ever masturbated), making for an endearing and rewardingly unusual account of mental illness and faith. This candid and funny volume hits the mark. (June)

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