Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine: Scientific and Theological Perspectives

by Christopher C.H. Cook

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com/books/978147245..., has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivative 4.0 license.

Experiences of hearing the voice of God (or angels, demons, or other spiritual beings) have generally been understood either as religious experiences or else as a feature of mental illness. Some critics of traditional religious faith have dismissed the visions and voices attributed to biblical characters and saints as evidence of mental disorder. However, it is now known that many ordinary people, with no other evidence of mental disorder, also hear voices and that these voices not infrequently include spiritual or religious content. Psychological and interdisciplinary research has shed a revealing light on these experiences in recent years, so that we now know much more about the phenomenon of "hearing voices" than ever before.



The present work considers biblical, historical, and scientific accounts of spiritual and mystical experiences of voice hearing in the Christian tradition in order to explore how some voices may be understood theologically as revelatory. It is proposed that in the incarnation, Christian faith finds both an understanding of what it is to be fully human (a theological anthropology), and God’s perfect self-disclosure (revelation). Within such an understanding, revelatory voices represent a key point of interpersonal encounter between human beings and God.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Psychology, Theology

265 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 7, 2018

About the author

Christopher C. H. Cook is Professor of Spirituality, Theology and Health in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, an Honorary Minor Canon at Durham Cathedral, and an Honorary Chaplain with Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV). He trained in medicine, at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, and then undertook postgraduate training in psychiatry at Guys Hospital, London. He was an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist with TEWV until 2017. Christopher was ordained as an Anglican priest in 2001. He has research doctorates in psychiatry and in theology and is Director of the Project for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Durham University. He is the author of The Philokalia and the Inner Life (James Clarke, 2011) and co-editor of Spirituality and Narrative in Psychiatric Practice (with Andrew Powell and Andrew Sims, RCPsych Press, 2016) and Spirituality, Theology and Mental Health (SCM, 2013). He is a member of the core research team for the Hearing the Voice project at Durham University.

Reviews

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not yet sure what to think of this book. It is a v, v impressive book, to be sure: Cook has read about a million articles and books from all points of written history and is able to have opinions on most of them. I am Impressed.

I'm just not entirely sure what the point of the book is. Like, I was surprised when it finished because I thought it would have more to say. Also, it's the most academic book I've read in some time and it may have just gone right over my head in some (most) places. But the general vibes I got were 'you can neither discount experiences of hearing voices as a purely biological, symptom-of-a-mental-illness way nor endorse them automatically as the voice of God, because of the history of people hearing voices and Jesus, but can you really tell any which way what is going on, because the whole field is so uncertain and strangely researched and ineffable'

Which, if you are a Christian, seems to be common sense BUT AGAIN, I am a particular kind of Christian, and what is common sense to me may not be, and is probably not, common sense to other people. And vice versa.

So, all in all, I thought that Cook took a very even, middle-of-the-road approach through the MANY quandaries he was addressing, and did a good job melding the sciences and the theologies into a coherent and validating and hopeful account of people, with and without diagnoses of mental illness, hearing the voice of God, which is difficult to do in this degenerate age. More than that I am not smart enough to say ;)

[Robert Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important subject ably researched

Hearing God's voice is an important and profound subject, which the author delves into through science, history and philosophy. The book gave a good scriptural overview as well. I felt this book helped me become better equipped to approach hearing the divine

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divine voices

This is a compilation of journals which focused on study of divine voices. Mainly the examples and case studies here from Christian religion though these studies intended for multi religion

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las voces—Gustave Moreau.

artículo en Pikara.