I'm doing this series because of Hunting Magic Eels. In the book I describe what I call "the Ache." The Ache names the emotional and social symptoms we experience when we lack God in our lives. As I describe in Hunting Magic Eels, much of our current mental health crisis is, in my estimation, due to a loss of transcendence. In this view, God has a "therapeutic" impact upon our lives.
And yet, whenever I've made this argument--that God is good for our mental health--a question I frequently get is this: "But isn't that just Moralistic Therapeutic Deism?"
Basically, because Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has been so stigmatized in Christian discourse any notion that belief in God is "therapeutic" is immediately suspect.
Before I describe Moralistic Therapeutic Deism in the next post, if you've never heard of it, I just want to offer a quick response toward suspicions regarding the "therapeutic."
I am aware that the modern rise of the "therapeutic self" and of a "therapeutic culture" have been named as problems, how almost everything in our culture is now viewed though a mental health filter. The language of therapy is ubiquitous, from "trigger" to "self-care" to "trauma." I'm aware of how the "therapeutic" has been implicated in the coddling of our youth, undermining their resiliency and participating in their chronic infantilization and perpetual victimhood. I understand why some want to put daylight between faith and the "therapeutic."
And yet, these same critics of the therapeutic love to quote Augustine's immortal line: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." These are same critics who will fret over the crisis of masculinity. The same critics who will point to the failures of liberalism by decrying increasing rates of deaths of despair due to overdose and suicide.
In short, the critics who decry the "therapeutic" routinely point to therapeutic problems in their criticisms of the liberal, post-Christian social order. Well, I'm sorry, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either we're facing therapeutic problems, or we're not. You can't claim that therapeutic problems are being over-exaggerated while sounding the alarm over therapeutic crises: Deaths of despair are on the rise! Young men are lost and suffering! We're facing a crisis of meaning! Look at the epidemic of mental illness!
Let me put it this way. You don't hear Christian critics of the "therapeutic" saying that the post-Christian culture is healthy, happy, and flourishing. No, the claim is that our post-Christian culture is deeply unwell, psychologically and socially. So which is it? Are the kids a bunch of snowflakes or are they really suffering? Because it seems a bit hypocritical to call people snowflakes while using their pain as evidence for your arguments.
My opinion is that our hearts really are restless without God. I think the pain we're seeing among our young people is pervasive and real. I think people suffer without God. Which means that I think God is, therapeutically speaking, good for you.
So, I don't have a problem with faith being therapeutic because I think God is in the healing business. Always has been. Always will.
