THEOLOGY OF DEPRESSION

Joel Ralte
Introduction:
“Depression: A Global Crisis” is used as the main theme for World Mental Health Day in
2012 by World Federation for Mental Health which shows that it is not just an issues for some
community but a global concerns. Depression can affect anyone and it is one of the most
widespread illnesses, often co-existing with other serious illnesses. According to the World
Health Organization, unipolar depressive disorders were ranked as the third leading cause of the
global burden of disease in 2004 and will move into the first place by 2030. 1 This paper will be
dealing with the historical, clinical, biblical view of depression to understand the nature and how
does it affects to human being. The main focus of this paper is on the theological understanding
of depression and the implications for Pastoral Care and Counseling.

1. Depression:
The term Depression is first used by Samuel Johnson in 1753 2 to refer to a common mental
disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, decreased energy,
feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, and poor concentration. Moreover,
depression often comes with symptoms of anxiety. These problems can become chronic or
recurrent and lead to substantial impairments in an individual’s ability to take care of his or her
everyday responsibilities.3
There are different types of Depression i.e., Endogenous,4 Reactive,5 Mild,6 Moderate,7
Severe,8 Bipolar.9
2. Clinical Features of Depression:10

1
World Federation for Mental Health, DEPRESSION: A Global Crisis World Mental Health Day (October
10 2012): 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3573568/ (Accessed on 20/8/2018)
2
David Healy, “Depression,” The New Dictionary of Pastoral Studies, eds. Wesley Carr (London: SPCK,
2002), 93.
3
World Federation for Mental Health, DEPRESSION, 6.
4
Endogenous Depression is all about the mood swings in the persons behavior resulted by the internal
mechanism of the brain, the neuro-chemical reactions which largely alters and makes our perceptions. (See also,
Kwame McKenzie, Understanding Depression (England: Family Doctor Publications, 2004), 5.)
5
Reactive depression is described itself in the word that some kind of reaction to an event or series of
events like losing job, losing the persons etc., which in some way provokes a depressive response. (Michael Lawson,
Facing Depression (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997), 22.)
6
This is a kind of depression when the person is facing mood swing variations and the illness often starts
after a specific stressful events. (Benjamin B. Wolmen, ed., “Depression,” Dictionary of Behavioural Science (USA:
Yannostrand Reinhold Company, 1973), 94.)
7
Low mood swing is constant and consists of some physical symptoms like sleep problems, loss of
appetite, mental and physical slowing, therefore, medical treatment is required. (Kwame McKenzie, Understanding
Depression, 24.)
8
When a person is experiencing some of the symptoms like delusions and hallucinations at higher level.
This is called life threatening illness and consultation with the physician is badly needed. (Kwame McKenzie,
Understanding Depression, 24.)
9
This is also known as manic-depressive illness in which people can have high moods and periods of
sustained low moods. (Kwame McKenzie, Understanding Depression, 26.)
10
Yulia E. Chentsova-Dutton and Jeanne L. Tsai, “Understanding Depression across Cultures,” Handbook
of Depression, edited by Ian H. Gotlib Constance L. Hammen (New York: The Gilford Press, 2009), 364.

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 THEOLOGY OF DEPRESSION
Joel Ralte
The main features of depression are presented in Table:

Clinical Features of Depression

Domain Clinical Features
Mood Depressed mood, Inability to experience pleasure
Irritable mood, Anxiety and apprehension
Behavior Psychomotor retardation or agitation, Depressive stupor
Relationships Deterioration in family relationships, Withdrawal from peer
relationships, Poor school performance
Fatigue, Disturbance of sleep, Aches and pains, Loss of
Somatic State appetite or overeating, Change in weight, Diurnal variation
of mood (worse in morning), Loss of interest in sex
Cognition Negative view of self, world and future, Excessive guilt
Suicidal ideation, Mood-congruent delusions, Cognitive
distortions, Inability to concentrate, Indecision
Perception Perceptual bias towards negative events
Mood-congruent hallucinations

3. Brief Historical Understanding of Depression:

In the second millennium B.C., the term Melancholia 11 appeared in ancient Mesopotamian
texts and all the mental illnesses were thought to be caused when someone was taken over by
demons (possession). They were then treated by priests. The early Babylonian, Chinese, and
Egyptian civilizations also viewed mental illness as a form of demonic possession where beating,
restraint, starvation were used to drive demons out of the afflicted person’s body. In contrast,
early Roman and Greek doctors thought that depression was both a biological and psychological
disease. Gymnastic, massage, special diets, music, baths etc, were used to treat depressive
symptoms.12
During the last years before Christ, the predominant view among educated Romans was that
mental illnesses like depression were caused by demons and by the anger of the gods. During the
Middle Ages, most people thought that mentally ill people were possessed by the devil, demons,
or witches. They also thought it was possible for these people to infect others with their madness.
Treatments included exorcisms, and other crueler strategies such as drowning and burning.13
During the renaissance,14 witch-hunts and executions of the mentally ill were quite common
throughout Europe. It is believed that mental illnesses were due to natural causes, and witches
were actually mentally disturbed people in need of humane medical treatment.15
11
Rashmi Nemade, Historical Understanding of Depression.
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/historical-understandings-of-depression/ (Accessed on 20/8/2018)
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
The Renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century and spread throughout Europe in the 1500s and 1600s.
During this time, thinking about mental illness was characterized by both forward progress and backward thinking.
15
Ibid.

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In his book Anatomy of Melancholy (1921), Robert Burton described the psychological and
social causes of depression.16 During the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment (the 1700s and
early 1800s), it was thought that depression was an inherited, unchangeable weakness of
temperament. This led to the common thought that affected people should be shunned or locked
up. As a result, most people with mental illnesses became homeless, poor and some were
committed to institutions.17
Towards the beginning of the 1800s, new therapies for depression were developed. 18
Benjamin Franklin introduced an early form of electroshock therapy. Horseback riding, special
diets, enemas and vomiting were also recommended treatments.
German Psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin was the first one who distinguished depression from
schizophrenia in 1895. Psychoanalysis, the psychotherapy based upon the psychodynamic
theory, became increasingly popular as a treatment for depression. In a 1917 essay, Sigmund
Freud explained melancholia as a response to loss. Other doctors during this time viewed
depression as a physical disease and a brain disorder.19
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many people were treated with lobotomy, which is the
surgical destruction of the frontal portion of a person's brain.20 Electroconvulsive therapy was a
popular treatment for schizophrenia, but this treatment was also used for people with
depression.21
In 1952, doctors noticed that a tuberculosis medication (isoniazid) was also useful in treating
people with depression. Shortly after this significant finding, the practice of using medications to
treat mental illness gained greater favor. Psychiatry, which had previously looked to
psychotherapy as their therapy of choice, started to emphasize the use of medications as primary
treatments for mental illnesses. During the same period, new theories in psychology added to the
approaches of psychotherapy. Behaviorism, and the Cognitive Behavioral school of thought, as

16
These social causes included issues such as poverty, fear and social isolation. In this work, he
recommended diet, exercise, distraction, travel, purgatives (cleansers that purge the body of toxins), bloodletting,
herbal remedies, marriage, and even music therapy as treatments for depression. (Rashmi Nemade, Historical
Understanding of Depression. https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/historical-understandings-of-depression/
(Accessed on 20/8/2018)
17
Ibid.
18
This included water immersion, which involved keeping people under water for as long as possible
without drowning them. It also included a special spinning stool to cause dizziness in order to rearrange the contents
of the brain into the correct positions. https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/historical-understandings-of-depression/
(Accessed on 20/8/2018)
19
This was either real loss (such as the death of a spouse), or symbolic loss (such as the failure to achieve
an important goal). Freud believed that a person's unconscious anger over loss weakened the ego, which resulted in
self-hate and self-destructive behavior. Freud recommended psychoanalysis (the "talking cure") to resolve
unconscious conflicts and reduce the need for self-abusive thoughts and behavior.
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/historical-understandings-of-depression/ (Accessed on 20/8/2018)
20
They caused personality changes, the inability to make decisions, and poor judgment. Even worse, they
sometimes lead to a coma or even death. https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/historical-understandings-of-
depression/ (Accessed on 20/8/2018)
21
Ibid.

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well as Client-centered (Humanistic) therapy, and Family Systems therapies joined

Psychodynamic psychotherapy as popular treatment options.22
Currently, scientists and mental health professionals recognize that depressive symptoms
have multiple causes. Depression can be caused by both mental and physical causes at the same
time. But since the paper is limited to the understanding from the theological perspective, we
will not dig more into the mental and physical causes and other psychological, cultural,
biological etc., understanding.

4. Depression: The Global Crisis:

Depression is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease and affects people in
all communities across the world. Today, depression is estimated to affect 350 million people.
The World Mental Health Survey conducted in 17 countries found that on average about 1 in 20
people reported having an episode of depression in the 2011. Depressive disorders often start at a
young age; they reduce people’s functioning and often are recurring. For these reasons,
depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide in terms of total years lost due to
disability.23 At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Almost 1 million lives are lost yearly due
to suicide, which translates to 3000 suicide deaths every day. (WHO, 2012)24

5. Biblical Understanding of Depression:

Hopelessness is one of the hallmark symptoms of depression but the Bible says that the grace
of God in Jesus Christ is the sum of all hope (Colossians 1:5-6, 23, 27; 1 Timothy 1:1). Paul, a
man who had more than his share of tribulation and suffering, proclaimed, "We have placed our
hope in Him that He will deliver us again" (2 Corinthians 1:10b). We live in a fallen world, one
in which good things may come to an end. The tragic dimension of life will be present until the
kingdom of God comes fully in Jesus' return. The joy of salvation comes from realizing, again
and again, that our sins have been forgiven and that we will live forever with the eternally happy
God, who desires that we share in His joy. We should never "get over" the gospel. Love for God
and others is essential because we all at some time or another find ourselves sucked into a vortex
of morbid self-involvement, which keeps us from following the heavenly prescription given by
the Great Physician, the medicine that many need above all else (Matthew 22:36-40). When we
begin to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and demonstrate love to others, we
find true hope in God's active love.25

6. Theological Understanding of Depression:

Depression is spoken of variously as the result of personal or original sin, as a kind of sin
(e.g., despair), as a sign of demonic possession or as involving demons, as a test of faith, as a
sign of holiness, or as an occasion for spiritual transformation. 26 For the purpose of this paper, I
would like to bring the theologies of Depression into three main points.
22
Ibid.
23
World Federation for Mental Health, DEPRESSION, 6.
24
World Federation for Mental Health, DEPRESSION, 6.
25
Sam Willimas, What does Bible Say about Depression?, https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/pastor-
depression-eight-biblical-strategies-for-counseling-depression (Accessed on 1/09/2018)

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6.1. Spiritual Health Theology:
Some Christians believes that mental illness as a form of Spiritual Health that indicates
holiness and closeness to God. In the context of depression, this is found particularly in some
Catholic thought, drawing on the tradition of the Dark Night of the Soul. In this narrative, a
period of spiritual dryness and sense of abandonment by God is not a permanent devastation but
part of the journey toward union with God. Therefore, feelings of depression and abandonment
by God, perceived diachronically, become a time of crisis that gives rise to an opportunity for
spiritual transformation, and ‘mental illness’ is viewed as ultimately instrumental of salvation.27
In SH theology, God is thought to cause the experience to show the person’s holiness, bring
them closer to God, and improve them in some way. SH theology sees instances of mental
distress as supernatural and positive caused by God, directed at the person’s salvation, and as a
sign of their closeness to God.28
6.1.1. Concept of God: Job as a Victim of Depression
The book of Job narrates the pathetic condition of human being when one faces the crisis in
the life situation.29 Job is a complex character, and inasmuch as he continues to struggle with
God he does not ultimately give in to his depression. His language is, however, full of imagery
which corresponds to contemporary views of the emotional condition of the victim of
depression:
May the day perish when I was born, and the night that told of a boy conceived May that day be
darkness, may God on high have no thought for it, may no light shine on it. • · · Why did I not die
new-born not perish as I left the womb? Why give light to a man of grief? Why give life to those
bitter of heart, who long for a death that never comes, and hunt for it more than for a buried
treasure? They would be glad to see the grave-mound and shout with joy if they reached the tomb
(Job 3:3, 4; 11; 20-22).30
These words certainly sound like the lamentations of a victim of depression, but it is important to
note that Job's approach to God and the experience he is having are tempered by a strong belief
in both sides of God's being. As C. G. Jung has pointed out in his powerful study of Job:
As certain as he is of the evil in Yahweh, he is equally certain of the good. In a human being who
renders us evil we cannot expect at the same time to find a helper. But Yahweh is not a human
being: he is both a persecutor and a helper in one, and the one aspect is as real as the other.
Yahweh is not split but is an antinomy—a totality of inner opposite»— and this is the
indispensable condition for his tremendous dynamism, his omniscience and omnipotence. Because
of this knowledge Job holds on to his intention of "defending his ways to his face" (Jung, 7). 31

Job’s believed that his experiences are part of divine mission, which provided that his belief
influenced experiences bring him peace and joy rather than fear and anxiety, and find his
psychotic experiences transformed into positive religious events rather than events marked by
fear or uncertainty.
6.2. Spiritual Illness Theology:

26
Anastasia Philippa Scrutton, “Two Christian Theologies of Depression: An Evaluation and Discussion of
Clinical Implications,” Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 22/4 (December 2015), 275.
27
Richard E. Keady, Depression, Psychophysiology and Concepts of God, (http://bok.xyz/s/?
q=Depression,Psychophysiology+ndConceptsofGod, Accessed on 25/8/2018)
28
Scrutton, “Two Christian Theologies of Depression, 275.
29
James H. Reynierse, “Behaviour Therapy and Job’s Recovery,” Journal of Psychology and
Theology 3(1975):187.
30
Richard E. Keady, Depression, Psychophysiology and Concepts of God.
31
Ibid.

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Joel Ralte
In Spiritual Illness theology, the experience is a punishment by God for sin, or the ‘natural’
result of sin, or the result of demonic activity; SI theology sees mental distress as supernatural
caused by demons, or sin, or God as the result of sin. On SI theology, the depression sufferer is
especially far from God, or spiritually ill.32
6.2.1. God of Wrath: Martin Luther
In his Courage to Be, Paul Tillich characterizes the Middle Ages as the age of moral anxiety
in which the threat of non-being was manifest in the relative threat of guilt and the absolute
threat of condemnation. Martin Luther represents a case study for Tillich inasmuch as he was
plagued with the characteristics of depression manifest in guilt and condemnation and articulated
in the concept of God as the God of Wrath. This is not to deny that Luther understood and wrote
passionately about God as Love. It is to assert that his particular problems with depression and
his concept of God correlate with one another.33
In his study of Luther, Erik Erikson describes the beginning of his most severe attack of
anxiety and depression. In looking at the list of painful problems Luther experienced at that time
we find a striking number which are in the list of depressive characteristics listed above: self-
doubt, fear of God's judgment, crisis of generativity, cardiac spasms, constipation, severe sweats,
low self-esteem and buzzing in his ears. These many characteristics would indicate that Luther
certainly held God to be a God of Wrath. Paul Althaus 34 indicates that Luther did have an acute
sense of God's wrath precisely because of his acute sense of his own sin: "As the holy God, God
cannot respond to man's sin in any other way than with enmity and wrath". 35 The way out of his
hell is only through God's action of confronting the sinner with the gospel and "opening his heart
to faith through His Spirit".36 From the experience of Martin Luther studied by some scholars,
depression can be seen as the punishment from God but through repentance of sin through faith,
there is a way out from the experience.
6.3. Potentially Transformative Theology:
Potentially transformative (PT), where depression is inherently bad and undesirable, but can
become the occasion for the person’s spiritual growth (e.g., hope, compassion, insight,
appreciation of beauty).37 It can include to the idea of the ‘wounded healer’—the idea that the
wounded person has unique healing capabilities and/or even that woundedness provides
characteristics necessary for the healing of others.38
A priest and psychologist Henri Nouwen writes that his experience of depression as ‘fertile
ground’ for a kind of spiritual and moral transformation, enabling him to love unconditionally,
and freeing him from the tendency to overestimate the importance of others’ opinions of him.
Nouwen’s depression seems to have been triggered by his struggle with his sexual identity (he
was gay and had strong feelings for a male colleague) and loneliness (as a Catholic priest, he was
32
Scrutton, “Two Christian Theologies of Depression, 275.
33
Richard E. Keady, Depression, Psychophysiology and Concepts of God.
34
German Lutheran Theologian Paul Althaus was born in Obershagen in the Province of Hanover, and he
died in Erlangen. He held various pastorates from 1914 to 1925, when he was appointed associate professor of
practical and systematic theology at the University of Göttingen, becoming full professor two years later. Althaus
was moderately critical of Lutheran Orthodoxy and evangelical-leaning Neo-Lutheranism.
http://fortresspress.com/product/theology-martin-luther (Accessed on 3/9/2018)
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid.
37
Scrutton, “Two Christian Theologies of Depression, 276.
38
Scrutton, “Two Christian Theologies of Depression, 280.

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expected to be celibate).39 He saw depression as an occasion to grow or to become in some way
better (mentally and spiritually) than they had previously been.40
The pain and suffering offer an opportunity to grow theologically rather than to give up on God.
The issue is not why bad things happen but how we cope in the face of adversity.41
6.3.1. Jurgen Moltmann: Theology of Hope:
The German Theologian Jurgen Moltmann points out that hope centres on promise of God.42
Christian hope is grounded in God. It turns outwards from the battered ego of the hoper to the
object of hope, the Trinitarian God. In the Father, Son, and Spirit we have the One who sustains
hope. The Father of promise sends the Son as the fulfillment of His promise. That hope is always
oriented towards God is made clear throughout the Bible. 43 Christ came for “consolation and
mercy,” not only in the past-tense sense, but here and now He, has come to destroy death and the
devil, and to bring life and joy and light to those who trust in him.
6.3.2. Theology of Cross: “Our highest Comfort”
One of Luther’s main strategies for comforting people was to point them to the unmoving
historical events of his death and resurrection for the salvation of all, and to the historical event
of the believer’s baptism into Christ, through which all Christ’s saving acts and promises become
personal.44 The victory Christ has won over all suffering required him to be humiliated and to
occupy the lowest place in creation for us and it is the greatest miracle that has ever occurred on
earth as the Son of God died in such a shameful death on the cross. Luther is stressing that this
miracle is an objective reality, the benefits of which we already share as Christians, by faith. This
is our highest comfort, our most precious possession—our sure help against the plagues of
depressive melancholia and the “fiery darts” of terror and anguish it brings.45
The theology of the cross offers no quick or easy turn-around but rather the miracle of
Christ’s embrace of the human pain, shame, and loneliness of depression, in order to transform
and redeem them. The cross is our “highest wisdom and our truest and most golden art.” It is the
core of all Christian comfort. Christ, the artist, knows the palette of depression, and he knows
how to paint our portrait in his likeness. Our horizons are fused with his. Here is a God who
hangs with us as we die, so that we may stand with him when he rises.46

7. Psychotherapy for Depression:

Psychotherapy can be an effective treatment for depression because it can help you investigate
into the underlying reasons for your depression and learn new coping skills. Many of the

39
Ibid.
40
Ibid..
41
Ira S. Halper, Laurel A. Burton, “Depression and Soul,” Journal of Religion and Health 35/4 (Winter,
1996), 311.
42
Francis Bridger & David Atkinson, Counselling In Context: Developing a Theological Framework
(London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994), 237.
43
Ibid., 241.
44
Scrutton, “Two Christian Theologies of Depression, 280.
45
Leonard M. Hummel, “Heinz Kohut and Empathy: A Ferspective from the Geology of the Cross,” Word
& World 21 (2001), 64.
46
Hummel, “Heinz Kohut and Empathy: A Perspective from the Geology of the Cross,”, 67.

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therapeutic modalities described below have evidence supporting their benefit in treating
depression.
 Cognitive Therapy47
 Behavioral Therapy48
 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy49
 Dialectical Behavior Therapy50 
 Psychodynamic Therapy51
 Interpersonal Therapy52

8. Implications for Pastoral Care and Counseling:

Pastoral Counselor needs to be aware that Depression is giving a clear message that
something is amiss and needs attention. It is important to try to discover what this depression is
saying for this person, and what adjustments need to be made in his or her lifestyle and
relationships, and not simply to wait until the pain has passed, imagining that when the pain
ceases the illness is necessarily cured. Depression is cyclical in nature, especially when it is
treated only by drugs with no attempt to search for the root cause. Some people think that
seeking professional help is “lack of faith”, and that makes them guilty, so the cycle continues. 53
Pastoral Counselor role is to help the Depressed Person to identify and acknowledge loses,
sometimes simple questions are enough to help the person spot those life changes or losses and
to explore them. Being presence to listen their cries could have made their life better. Pastoral
Counselor also can make use of the theological understanding of Depression to discover
himself/herself (depressed person) in what situations he/she is in and help in enlargement of

47
Cognitive therapy helps patients to learn to identify common patterns of negative thinking, called
cognitive distortions and to turn those negative thought patterns into more positive ones, thus improving the patient's
mood. Richard S. Sharf, Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling: Concepts and Cases (Belmont, CA: Cengage
Learning, 2010), 7.
48
Behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on changing undesired behaviors. It uses the
principles of classical and operant conditioning in order to reinforce wanted behaviors while eliminating unwanted
behaviors. Sharf, Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling, 8.
49
Because cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy work well together to help depression and anxiety
disorders, the two are often combined in an approach called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Sharf, Theories of
Psychotherapy and Counseling, 8.
50
This therapy is a type of CBT. Its main goal is to teach the patient skills to cope with stress, regulate
emotions, and improve relationships with others. Sharf, Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling, 9.
51
Psychodynamic therapy is based on the assumption that depression can occur because of unresolved—
usually unconscious—conflicts, often originating from childhood. The goals of this type of therapy are for the
patient to become more aware of their full range of emotions, including contradictory and troubling ones, and to
help the patient more effectively bear these feelings and put them in a more useful perspective. Sharf, Theories of
Psychotherapy and Counseling, 10.
52
Interpersonal therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on past and present social roles and interpersonal
interactions. During treatment, the therapist generally chooses one or two problem areas in the patient's current life
to focus on. Sharf, Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling, 11.
53
David J. Atkinson, New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology (Illinois, USA: Inter-
Varsity, 1995), 301.

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hope. The person also can be given a suggestion for medical therapy or psychotherapy depending
on the level of depression.

Conclusion:
From the above discussion, we could see that Depression as the serious issues in the
global scenario, that takes away thousands of human lives every year. It is not just an issue for
the contemporary world but it has a long history where we could see the seriousness of the
mental illness in different eras. At the same time, as the world grows the development has
brought changes in the perception of the mental illness, psychotherapies, medicine are
discovered for the treatment of depression. The theology that condemned depression as caused
by sin is no more stress but hope for the wholeness of live. Therefore, today Pastoral Counselor
have a better options to give a treatment for a person with depression.

Bibliography:

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 THEOLOGY OF DEPRESSION
Joel Ralte
Bridger, Francis & David Atkinson. Counselling In Context: Developing a Theological
Framework. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.
Chentsova Dutton, Yulia E. and Jeanne L. Tsai. “Understanding Depression across Cultures.” In
Handbook of Depression. Edited by Ian H. Gotlib Constance L. Hammen. New York:
The Gilford Press, 2009.
Lawson, Michael. Facing Depression. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997.
McKenzie, Kwame. Understanding Depression. England: Family Doctor Publications, 2004.
Sharf, Richard S. Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling: Concepts and Cases. Belmont,
CA: Cengage Learning, 2010.

Dictionaries:
Atkinson, David J. New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology. Illinois, USA:
Inter-Varsity, 1995.
Healy, David. “Depression.” The New Dictionary of Pastoral Studies. Eds. Wesley Carr.
London: SPCK, 2002.
Wolmen, Benjamin B. ed. “Depression.” Dictionary of Behavioural Science. USA: Yannostrand
Reinhold Company, 1973.
Journals:
Halper, Ira S. Laurel A. Burton. “Depression and Soul.” Journal of Religion and Health 35/4
(Winter, 1996): 311-319.
Hummel, Leonard M. “Heinz Kohut and Empathy: A Ferspective from the Geology of the
Cross.” Word & World 21 (2001): 64-74.
Reynierse, James H, "Behavior Therapy and Job's Recovery." Journal of Psychology and
Theology 3 (1975): 187-194.
Scrutton, Anastasia Philippa. “Two Christian Theologies of Depression: An Evaluation and
Discussion of Clinical Implications.” Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 22/4
(December 2015): 275-289.
Webliography:
Rashmi Nemade, Historical Understanding of Depression,
(https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/historical-understandings-of-depression/ (Accessed
on 20/8/2018)
Richard E. Keady, Depression, Psychophysiology and Concepts of God, http://bok.xyz/s/?
q=Depression,Psychophysiology+ndConceptsofGod, (Accessed on 25/8/2018)
Sam Willimas, What does Bible Say about Depression?,
https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/pastor-depression-eight-biblical-strategies-for-
counseling-depression (Accessed on 1/09/2018)
World Federation for Mental Health, DEPRESSION: A Global Crisis World Mental Health Day
(October/10/2012).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3573568/ (Accessed
on 20/8/2018)

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