Christianity and Mental Illness: Evil or Sickness?

Despite the widespread prevalence of mental illness and the increasingly high need for mental health care, patients with mental illness continually fail to receive adequate or timely treatment. Among other reasons, stigma against and misunderstandings of mental illness prevent millions of people from promptly seeking appropriate medical attention, thereby distressing not only those affected, but also their families and communities. In particular, recent research on attitudes toward mental illness among Christian leaders and members of the Christian community has demonstrated that knowledge regarding causation remains limited among Christians, as well as that negative views toward mental illness are widespread in that community. In response, this paper highlights the considerable amount of stigma and misinformation, if not outright lack of knowledge, regarding mental illness, its causation, and approaches to treatment among Christians, all of which are factors that can contribute to the under-recognition and undertreatment of people with mental health disorders. Its aims are both to improve the understanding of attitudes and views toward mental illness among Christian leaders and the Christian community and to illuminate how those perceptions can prompt the under-recognition and undertreatment of individuals with mental illness. To those ends, a systematic search of international literature was conducted from September 2015-April 2016 to analyze current literature on Christianity and mental health, Christians’ attitudes toward mental health, and their impact on treatment-seeking behavior in the Christian community. The paper’s contribution is part of an important effort to de-stigmatize mental illness and increase awareness among clergy to promote the use of mental health services among Christians given the services’ role as a source of care for members of the community.