"We are not as Christian believers exempt from any of the stresses that affect anyone else. Our faith is not a passport to freedom from pressures" - Gaius Davies
Dr Gaius Davies, one of Britain's leading psychiatrists, has written a book aimed at all Christians. He aims to inform, to change attitudes and to give some practical help in dealing with the burden of shame and guilt that many people have when it comes to admitting any kind of emotional disorder.
Using examples from his experience in clinical practice, Dr Davies investigates the causes of breakdown and the many sources of stress that exist today: bereavement, guilt, personality problems, sexual tensions and the perennial problem of anxiety. He examines the ways and means by which we can cope with different kinds of stress, and even learn to utilize stress well, demonstrating the value of modern medical knowledge, while recognising that some afflictions can only be healed spiritually. What Dr Davies seeks to do above all else, is to help restore the Christian mind to its proper place in our lives, to achieve a healthy balance by which we can overcome life's many stresses. This is a book to encourage those suffering from breakdown or stress, prevent others from succumbing to it, and provide invaluable help to counsellors, and friends.
Endorsements
"The church has been waiting for a book like this for years."
R. T. Kendall Previous minister of Westminster Chapel, London
Dr Davies is coolly realistic about the temperamental and traumatic ills to which Christians, like others, fall victim, for he knows that Christians, like others, are psychological invalids at the best of times, the only difference being that by God's grace we are at the deepest level in the process of recovering, whereas strangers to grace are not. His treatment of stress and what the care of those under stress involves has about it a down-to-earth circumspection that may seem low-key but will be found very salutary. Overheated super-spirituality, fouling up the conscience by treating all psycho-physical strain as a symptom of sin, unbelief or demon possession, still, alas, runs loose among us; this book, please God, will put salt on its tail - and none too soon. May these Christianly and professionally shrewd chapters find the ministry they merit.
J. I. Packer (1926–2020), Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada
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