On the Edge of Hope: A Review
One of the results of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects—shutdowns, school closures, unemployment, social isolation, etc.—has been an increased level of anxiety and depression across the populace. In fact, there are studies indicating that even COVID-19 infections themselves can lead to adverse psychological conditions. In addition to COVID-19, the past couple of years have been rife with other traumatic events, such as political unrest, racial reckoning, war, and economic uncertainty. Taken together, all of these factors have created a perfect mental-health storm. As a local church pastor, I see elevated levels of anxiety and depression among the people I serve. Over the past two years, I have engaged in more inner healing prayer and referred more individuals to mental health professionals than I have in the entirety of my ministry. The people of God need to be equipped to minister to people facing anxiety and depression, and to do so with thoughtfulness, compassion, prayer, and an approach that is firmly rooted in Scripture and science.
In On the Edge of Hope: No Matter How Dark the Night, the Redeemed Soul Still Sings (Chosen Books, 2022), Mark Chironna offers a treatment of anxiety and depression that is part biography, part theological treatise, and part psychological assessment. The result is an eminently readable and useful guide for anyone interested in an integrative, holistic Christian perspective on anxiety and depression, or indeed on any “dark night of the soul.” In vulnerably and honestly sharing his own journey, Chironna provides a treatise on inner healing that points to the Triune God as understood through the Great Tradition as the ultimate source of hope and healing.
Chironna deftly navigates a theological middle way between prosperity, “health and wealth” elements of the Charismatic movement on one hand, and an overly intellectual approach that would prescribe rigid religious formulas on the other. Both approaches reveal their deep discomfort with the ambiguities of the interior life and mental health struggles in the lives of believers. Chironna encountered both theological persuasions as he faced his own overwhelming dark period. In the chapter titled “Acceptance is Not a Dirty Word,” Chironna outlines a healthy—dare I say, even biblical!—approach to starting to deal with anxiety and depression: acceptance. This does not explain away the causes of suffering or deny its reality; instead, it acknowledges that avoidance exacerbates the problem: “Christ died for us, but he never promised us pain-free lives. That unsound approach to Scripture could not lead me to health and wholeness. And it won’t help you either. What it produces is a futile resistance to being with your pain” (55). In other words, the first step toward healing is realizing one actually needs healing; a person must “turn to the truth, cling to the Triune God, and confess, ‘I am here’” (56). God is with us, here and now, regardless of what we are facing. He longs to meet us in the place of deepest need.
Chironna aptly reminds us that feelings are a necessary barometer when addressing maladies like anxiety and depression. The church mothers and fathers understood salvation as healing; after all, the Greek rendering of salvation is sozo, which means to make well, to heal or restore to health. In other words, being saved by the atoning work of Christ touches on all aspects of embodied existence. Despite this, many expressions of Western Christianity seem to present a faith that divides the mind and the body, looking with suspicion upon aspects of the mind and eschewing emotions as irrelevant. In addressing this, Chironna makes three key moves.
First, he differentiates between feelings and emotions. It is erroneous to use these terms interchangeably. Feelings are clues that offer insight into our emotional condition, and to ignore, downplay, or cast aspersion on feelings is to deny the way God created us. We are meant to experience feelings, and their presence allows us insight into our total wellbeing. Second, Chironna points to physical bodies as a key indicator of mental health. He references Paul’s exhortation to the church in Rome to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, which he links to renewal of the mind (Romans 12:1-2). Our bodies can tell us a great deal about our minds; by living as temples and renewing our minds, the Holy Spirit works in us to unite our fragmented selves. Third, Chironna reminds us to slow down and pay attention. He writes, “I began to realize in the middle of my dark season that I had to slow down to the speed of life and to the speed of revelation” (97). Elsewhere he describes this as “inner stillness and watchful silence.” When we rush through life and fail to pay attention to the signals—the feelings—our embodied selves send us, we miss what God is endeavoring to show us. When we are present to our selves, we can be present to the God who is always present to us.
Chironna relies on the story of Job, and particularly Job’s three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, as a way of framing how the wider faith community often responds to those in emotional crisis. Chironna relays the story of his own friend, Vinnie, who was the opposite of Job’s companions; he was wise, empathic, and able to handle pain and darkness with grace and love. It called to mind this classic bit from Henri Nouwen: “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand” (Out of Solitude, 38). Through deft biblical application and personal anecdote, comparing and contrasting true biblical friendship, Chironna presents us with a model of how to be those who tenderly bind up others’ wounds.
Chironna’s examination of power, fear, and hope is quite poignant. Through moving personal anecdote, Chironna details how part of his healing journey involved facing others’ power and his own powerlessness, and the way these relational power differentials affected his thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behavior. He reminds us that “fear and hope often exist side by side” (165), and that God’s goodness is an ever-present reality from which nothing can separate us. Through Job’s story and the larger witness of Scripture, Chironna constantly points to this truth: “the mystery of iniquity is indeed a mystery. But the mystery of the Triune God revealed in the death of Jesus Christ is infinitely greater” (180). Yes, suffering and trauma are real. But they ultimately get swallowed up and redeemed in God’s salvific work.
On the Edge of Hope is a deeply rewarding read, offering a treatment of human complexity that is brutally real yet eminently hopeful. Chironna dispenses with easy answers and trite remedies and allows the full beauty and ugliness of existence to journey side by side. It is evident that Chironna is immersed in the Scriptures, the Patristics, psychology, and pastoral theology; the seamless integration of these sources and disciplines offers a masterclass in combining theory and practice. This book should be required reading for any pastor or lay person who regularly accompanies those ensnared in life’s troubles, those engaged in inner healing or therapeutic ministries, and anyone who prays for and with others. Ultimately, this book will likely speak to all those who have ever trodden the valley of the shadow of death. They, too, might stake their claim on this: “the seasons change but the God revealed in the face of the crucified Christ does not. And nothing, not even death, can separate us from Him” (197).
Rev. Dr. Evan Rohrs-Dodge is the senior pastor of St. Paul’s UMC in Brick, NJ, adjunct professor at Centenary University, and a member of the Firebrand editorial board.