Lizzie Ilsley, an MA student, recently had her essay on her journey with depression and Christian faith accepted into the ‘Faith & Thought’ journal.
I’m a penultimate year Anglican ordinand at St Hild studying for a Master’s in Theology, Ministry and Mission. I live in Sheffield with my husband Jon and two teenage children and work part-time alongside training and studying as a speech and language therapist.
The title of my piece is ” ‘Between – Pie Mountains ‘ – Can an acute depressive episode have a positive effect on spirituality? A personal reflection on depression, spiritual accompaniment and reframing ”
I completed it last year as an ILP (individual learning project) supported by Ruth Newton, who was my supervisor for the learning project. Ruth has been enormously encouraging and confidence-building. She introduced me to the idea of ‘ ethnobiography’ and theological reflection – I wanted to explore how depression could speak into faith and calling, particularly as I experienced depression during the discernment process, and how it might be framed as prayer.
The first half of the piece describes my own experience of depression and then how it was received, both medically and in spiritual direction. I take a look at the different ways depression and Christian faith is handled by different practitioners, and find that for me, ‘ spiritual accompaniment and reframing’, alongside medical intervention for depression, was the most fruitful. I then look at the writing of two Christians, a few hundred years apart, formed in the Ignatian tradition – St Teresa of Avila and Gerard Manly Hopkins (where the phrase ‘ between pie mountains’ comes from ), and find in their meditations and poetry both an experience of depression and a discernment of the presence of Christ within that. While I start with a really personal experience, I hope the piece speaks into and widens others’ experience or understanding of depression and how God can be present and revealed to us in really unexpected places.
Janet Williams and Sally Nelson pointed me towards the journal ‘ Faith and Thought’ which is offering space for junior scholars to submit essays – so I submitted the essay to the editor just before Christmas and it was accepted. The link for Faith and Thought with the information about encouraging junior scholars is here and I’d strongly encourage anyone else who has never had anything published before to submit something.’
The essay will be published in the Summer 2023 term.
