Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman's Journey with Depression and Faith

Monica A. Coleman

Fortress Press, 2016 - Religion - 350 pages

Monica A. Coleman's great-grandfather asked his two young sons to lift him up and pull out the chair when he hanged himself, and that noose stayed in the family shed for years. The rope was the violent instrument, but it was mental anguish that killed him. Now, in gripping fashion, Coleman examines the ways that the legacies of slavery, war, sharecropping, poverty, and alcoholism mask a family history of mental illness. Those same forces accompanied her into the black religious traditions and Christian ministry. All the while, she wrestled with her own bipolar disorder.

Bipolar Faith is both a spiritual autobiography and a memoir of mental illness. In this powerful book, Monica Coleman shares her life-long dance with trauma, depression, and the threat of death. Citing serendipitous encounters with black intellectuals like Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Angela Davis, and Renita Weems, Coleman offers a rare account of how the modulated highs of bipolar II can lead to professional success, while hiding a depression that even her doctors rarely believed. Only as she was able to face her illness was she able to live faithfully with bipolar. And in the process, she discovered a new and liberating vision of God.

What people are saying

Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman's Journey with Depression and Faith

User Review  - Publishers Weekly

Coleman (Making a Way Out of No Way), a Claremont School of Theology professor, traces how mental illness and rape have shaped her Christian faith. Burdened by her sharecropping great-grandfather's ...

User Review -

What a awesome read! I couldn't put the book down. This book tells a vivid story of what so many of us survivors face on a daily basis. This book is powerful and remind people from all over, we are not alone and we can overcome any obstacle that we face!

About the author

Monica A. Coleman teaches theology and African American religions at Claremont School of Theology, where she also codirects the Centre for Process Studies. Her writings cover womanist theology, sexual abuse, and the African American experience. She is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church a sought after speaker and preacher.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman's Journey with Depression and Faith
• Author: Monica A. Coleman
• Editor: Monica A. Coleman
• Publisher: Fortress Press, 2016
• ISBN: 1506408591, 9781506408590
• Length: 350 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Christian Living / Social Issues; Religion / Education