Jesus the Village Psychiatrist

by Donald Capps

All of the Gospels and the whole of Christian tradition depict Jesus as a miraculous healer who can cure blindness, leprosy, hemorrhages, and a host of other maladies. But how did Jesus actually heal? In this fascinating book, Donald Capps argues that Jesus was keenly attuned to the psychological causes of illness and through his ministry brought healing to body and soul alike. Capps argues that one of Jesus' purposes was to heal people from mental illnesses, which people in the ancient world would have seen manifested in physical ailments such as blindness, paralysis, or other symptoms. Fully engaged in historical Jesus scholarship, Capps carefully examines Jesus' deep concern for both physical and emotional health and shows how his proclamation of the kingdom of God envisioned a world without mental illness.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2008

About the author

Donald Eric Capps was born in Omaha, NE, USA on January 30, 1939. After studying at Lewis & Clark College (B.A. 1960) and Yale Divinity School (B.D. 1963, S.T.M. 1965) and University of Chicago (M.A. 1966), he earned his Ph.D. also at the University of Chicago in 1970. His dissertation explored a psycho-historical analysis of the personality of the English theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman, and particularly his vocational struggles.
His academic career started as Instructor at the Department of Religious Studies at the Oregon State University during the Spring/Summer of 1969. He then became Instructor and Assistant Professor at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago between 1969 and 1974. Later, he was appointed Associate Professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he lectured between 1974 and 1976. Between 1976 and 1981 he was Associate Professor and then Professor at the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University.
In 1981 he joined the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was appointed the William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology. In May 2009 he retired with the status of Professor emeritus[2] but remains lecturing as adjunct.[3] In 1989, the Uppsala University, Sweden awarded him a degree of Doctor honoris causa in Theology for his contributions to the Psychology of Religion.[4]
Other honors include the William F. Bier Award for contribution to Psychology of Religion, granted in 1995 by the Division 36 of the American Psychological Association; the Helen Flanders Dunbar Centennial Award, granted in 2002 by the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York; and the Joseph A. Sittler Award for Theological Leadership, granted in 2003 by Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
He was the book review editor for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion between 1980 and 1983 and editor for the same journal between 1983 and 1988. Furthermore, between 1990 and 1992 he was the president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
He is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since 1972. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_E...)

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is an exercise of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and utterly failing.

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book stinks (thought I would get right to it, no sense in beating around the bush). The premise is that Jesus did not have the ability to heal or perform miracles but that the diseases those he helped suffer from was purely psychosomatic. Although they had real & physical disabilities they really were suffering from a mental or emotional disorder. To be honest it is not worth the effort to deal with the author’s assumptions & presuppositions. In fact he himself says in the introduction: “The argument that I will be making in this book is one that may seem a bit far-fetched.” This is an understatement, & there is nothing in this book that one will find helpful, insightful or beneficial.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book might be better titled, "Jesus the Village Psychoanalyst," because Capps' Jesus was Freudian before Freud was cool. Capps knows Freud better than Jesus, and 19th-century Europe better than 1st-century Palestine, so he interprets the unknown from the known. The result is mixed and, alas, unconvincing. Capps argues that the people that Jesus healed had conversion disorders and hysterical disorders, and Jesus healed them through transference. Maybe. I respect Capps' work in pastoral care. His work in historical Jesus studies is a bit shallow, I must confess. I hope that the next time Capps will do more of his homework.