Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness

Written by Matthew S. Stanford

Narrated by Adam Verner

Why has the church struggled in ministering to those with mental illnesses?



Each day men and women diagnosed with mental disorders are told they need to pray more and turn from their sin. Mental illness is equated with demonic possession, weak faith, and generational sin. As both a church leader and a professor of psychology and behavioral sciences, Michael S. Stanford has seen far too many mentally ill brothers and sisters damaged by well-meaning believers who respond to them out of fear or misinformation rather than grace.



Grace for the Afflicted is written to educate Christians about mental illness from both biblical and scientific perspectives. Stanford presents insights into our physical and spiritual nature and discusses the appropriate role of psychology and psychiatry in the life of the believer. Describing common mental disorders, Stanford probes what science says and what the Bible says about each illness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Sep 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977333858

Matthew S. Stanford

Matthew S. Stanford (PhD, Baylor University) is CEO of the Hope and Healing Center Institute in Houston, Texas, and he teaches in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine and the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston. He is the author of Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness and The Biology of Sin: Hope and Healing for Those Who Feel Trapped.Stanford is the cofounder and served as the executive director of the Grace Alliance, a faith-based, non-profit mental health organization that provides services and support to individuals living with serious mental illness and their families. An international speaker, his research on the interplay between psychology and faith has been featured in publications including The New York Times, USA Today, and Christianity Today, as well as websites such as Fox, MSNBC, Yahoo, and US News World Report. Stanford is a member of the American Psychological Association and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, where he is the author of over one hundred peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Family and Community Ministries and Behavioral Sciences and the Law, and is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Mental Health Advisory Group, and the American Bible Society's Trauma Healing Institute Advisory Council. He and his wife, Julie, have four children and reside in Houston, Texas.

Reviews for Grace for the Afflicted

[kherbrand_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is always hard for me to review a non-fiction book. I am not quite sure why this is. I requested this book for the First Wild Card Tour because I have a daughter with ADHD. I was hoping that it could give me some perspective on how to help her as she is growing up. (She is currently 16). This book was able to give me encouragement as a parent and in the gift that she is as my child, but I think it is more orientated to those who might actually be called upon to counsel people or families with different mental illnesses.

Grace for the Afflicted starts out detailing how we are created and that we embody body, mind and spirit - and that any illness, whether physical or mental, needs healing on all levels.

There are then a series of chapters going into more detail on different mental illnesses including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, substance use disorders and borderline personality disorder. Each of these disorders are broken down even further, giving us specific types of each disorder and their symptoms. Causes of them, psychological, environmental, physical, biological are all listed as well as possible treatments. Each chapter is summed up with what the Bible says about the disorder, if anything and reminds us of how are faith can play a role in supporting the person afflicted.

I grew up with an older sibling that has had many labels, include schizophrenia as an adult, so no one had to convince me that mental illness takes more than just praying for person to be healed - or that the person just needed to want to get better. Now as a parent with an ADHD child I have seen first hand the effects that correct medication can do to ease some of the symptoms. Like I said, I did get encouragement that it was not something that I did wrong as a parent that "made" my child have ADHD, but reminded me that my child was given to me as a gift from God for a reason, and while I might not know what that reason is yet, He has equipped me with the ability to love and raise her as a believer in Christ. He will support me in whatever trials still lay ahead.

I think this book would be good for any church member who may or may not struggle with accepting mental illness as "true" illnesses and the best way they can council other believers. This book would actually be good in pointing out to ANY person that mental illness is just as serious and just as real as physical illness.