THE MARVELOUS COMBAT Psychiatric Disability, Martin Luther, and Therapeutic Atonement
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 b...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Journal of disability & religion
Year: 2024, Volume: 28, Issue: 2, Pages: 132–141 |
| Further subjects: | B
psychiatric disability
B Atonement B Martin Luther B therapeutic atonement B Scrupulosity B Anxiety |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 2331-253X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of disability & religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/23312521.2023.2197423 |