by Philip Browning Helsel, Pastoral Psychology (15 August 2008)
The ancient Scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition portray a God whose behavior is erratic, unstable, and often cruelly violent. The attempt to understand, and even come to worship, this God has often required a sacrifice of the intellect. This article explores the behavior of this God in light of the diagnosis of Bipolar I in the Bible, exploring the characteristics, causes, course, consequences, and curability of Bipolar I through God’s purported activity. The value of the treatment is heuristic in that it provides an opportunity for a sustained engagement with a description of Bipolar I that will be accessible to those from the Judeo-Christian tradition. At the same time, it playfully makes space for alternative images of God that move away from the cruelty and violence often implicated within the tradition.
The full article can be purchased from SpringerLink for $32.
