“We can rest in the fact that Christ is never scandalized by our despair, or alarmed to find us sunk in the abyss. For Christ the deep ocean trenches are neither forbidden nor catastrophic. They’re just another location in God’s vast, mercy-filled cosmos.”
— Christ in the Abyss
Christ in the Abyss
In this raw and redemptive book, Jean Neely shares her journey with mental health challenges and faith, testifying that Christ’s presence isn’t reserved for the healed—but is found in the very heart of our pain. With poetic clarity and unflinching honesty, Neely challenges triumphalist Christian narratives and stigma and offers a vision of grace and hope that holds, even in the depths.
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More Praise for Christ in the Abyss
Neely offers a deeply vulnerable and courageous glimpse into her interior world, weaving her experiences of depression and bipolar diagnosis with reflections on God, church, and faith. This book is powerful and deeply moving and will resonate with anyone who has struggled or who loves someone navigating mental health challenges. Neely’s words offer hope, compassion, and empowerment and remind us that even in our most difficult seasons, God remains merciful, accepting, and loving.
GRACE JI-SUN KIM, professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion and author of When God Became White and Invisible
Jean Neely courageously breaks the silence and shame surrounding chronic mental illness and suffering with the good news that God does not abandon us—even when we do not get better. Too often we only share stories of deep struggle after we have been healed or come out victorious. With brave vulnerability, Jean writes about finding God—and God’s love pursuing her—in the abyss of bipolar disorder, a condition she has lived with for decades. Her story is a profound gift to all who suffer or love someone who suffers from mental illness, which is ultimately all of us. I urge you to receive this gift!
KATHY TUAN-MACLEAN, PhD, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship faculty ministry national director
With candor and courage, Jean Neely shows us what depression can look like when self-rejection takes a spiritual turn and when evangelical Christian expectations of piety combine with perfectionist pressures from immigrant church cultures. In this beautiful book, Neely guides readers on a journey into the abyss with her as she experiences anguish, peace, and wonder in her life across three countries. Readers will be uplifted as they see how a person of faith can work through childhood trauma, find grace in community, and even construct new language for God in the midst of healing and self-acceptance.
G R AC E Y. K AO, professor of ethics at Claremont School of Theology