Suffering, Wayfaring & Hope: A Conversation on Faith and Mental Health

Suffering, Wayfaring & Hope with Curt Thompson and Warren Kinghorn

Anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges are surging among both young and old. By some estimates, more than one in five American adults struggle with some form of mental illness each year. There are few untouched – either directly or through loved ones – with the suffering that attends such struggles. What does faith offer those in the midst of such challenges?

Warren Kinghorn and Curt Thompson, both practicing Christian psychiatrists, join our podcast to help explore these questions.

Warren’s book, Wayfaring: A Christian Approach to Mental Health Care, draws from the theology of Thomas Aquinas as well as the science of today. Curt’s latest book, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope, draws from the Apostle Paul’s experience to show us how we can flourish in the midst of suffering. Together, they help us to reframe our understanding of mental health care from fixing machines to accompanying fellow wayfarers on the way to the Lord’s feast:

“There's a lot of really good things about thinking about mental health care as a process of careful work to reduce symptoms. But what are we missing?

“I think some of what we're missing are the stories that people bring in and the stories, not just of individuals, but of communities and cultures…Maybe they're not just internal problems where something's broken and needs to be fixed, but maybe we need to think about it in a broader and more holistic context.”

- Warren Kinghorn

We trust this podcast will give you new language, compassion, and tools to address mental health challenges, and to wayfare alongside loved ones who may also be struggling.

This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in January, 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Warren Kinghorn and Curt Thompson.

Episode Outline
0:00 Introduction: The Mental Health Crisis
00:51 Meet the Experts: Curt Thompson and Warren Kinghorn
03:58 The Power of Stories in Mental Health
07:13 Reframing Mental Health: From Machines to Wayfarers
15:55 The Role of Community in Healing
35:50 Q&A: Addressing Shame, Community, and Healing
55:36 The Last Word from Warren Kinghorn and Curt Thompson

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Deepest Place, by Curt Thompson
Wayfaring, by Warren Kinghorn
St. Thomas Aquinas
Anatomy of the Soul, by Curt Thompson
The Soul of Shame, by Curt Thompson
The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community, by Curt Thompson
Thompson
Wendell Berry
John C. Polanyi
Julianne Holt-Lunstad

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
On Happiness, St. Thomas Aquinas
Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl,
Confessions, by St. Augustine
The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day
Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

Related Conversations:
The Soul of Desire with Curt Thompson
Hope and Healing in Hard Times with Curt Thompson

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.