The Cerulean Soul

A bold and refreshing book. Bellini brings together testimonial reports and hard data about depression and related disorders and goes to work as a theologian to provide illuminating connections with the themes of classical Christian teaching. Anyone acquainted with depression in their own lives or in that of loved ones will find this book fascinating and illuminating. Bellini is honest, clear, insightful, informed, and pastorally sensitive. This deserves not just one, but several, readings, and it opens up a whole new line of invaluable investigation.

~William J. Abraham, Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, Southern Methodist University and Director of the Wesley House of Studies at Baylor University

Dr. Bellini’s text provides nuanced insights about many interdisciplinary issues which emerge at the intersection of scholarship regarding Christian theology, human nature, and mental disorder. Supported by philosophical, historical, psychological, and theological insight, he offers a unique conceptual framework by which to understand mental health conditions, informed by relational and Christocentric explorations of the  imago Dei. I am most encouraged to note his commentary on the potential for the redemptive mission of the triune God in and through these challenging disorders. His book includes a wealth of discussion that will enlighten and expand contemporary, and much-needed, dialogue about theology and mental health.

~Marcia Webb, Department of Psychology, Seattle Pacific University

In his encyclopedic, erudite, and fascinating work, Dr. Peter Bellini reminds us of the multitude of elements in Western writing about melancholy that are inescapably linked to religious questions and assumptions, no matter the present era’s reductionistic concerns with the biomedical. Serving to complement that limited focus, his relational theological anthropology is generous, embracing, and sophisticated. As well as providing a comfort to those afflicted with mood disorders and their incumbent disabilities, The Cerulean Soul will prove a scholarly resource and treasure for believers and non-believers alike.

~Jennifer Radden, Emerita Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Boston

In this closely and sincerely argued book Peter Bellini examines historical definitions of melancholia and contemporary biological, psychological, and sociological, models of depression, and develops a relational theology of the illness - as the subtitle indicates. Through painstaking biblical and doctrinal discussion, incisive questioning, and detailed argument, he addresses such issues as sin and salvation, incarnation and redemption, theodicy and divine impassibility, the substance and work of the three persons of the Holy Trinity (the ontological and economic dimensions of the Trinity) in theological understandings of the human person.

~Julia Babb, Practical Theology

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.

~Kevin Lazarus, Reading Religion

This very deep and profound book argues that if we understand the triune God to be essentially relational at the core of His heart then this will shape our understanding of what it is to be human and therefore underpin the relational nature of depression as we understand ourselves to be theological spiritual creatures, made in the image of God for relationship with Him.

~Angharad Gray, Science & Christian Belief