A conversation on faith and mental health: Breath, presence, and the imago Dei
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Abstract
This conversational essay explores the interplay between breath, presence, disability, and the imago Dei through a dialogue between biblical scholar Kate Bowen‑Evans and psychotherapist Mark Bowen. Drawing on lived experience of disability, therapeutic practice, and theological reflection, the authors examine how attentive breathing cultivates embodied presence, expands internal space for difficult emotions, and fosters self‑compassion. Their discussion reframes the body – not as a site of deficit but as a locus of sensation, insight, and divine presence – challenging medicalised narratives that diminish disabled experience. Through scriptural motifs of ruach and pneuma and the relational vision of the imago Dei, they argue that mindful presence to one’s own embodied experience deepens connection to others, creation, and God. The conversation ultimately proposes breath‑work as both a therapeutic and theological practice that affirms inherent worth, nurtures wellbeing, and reveals the interconnectedness at the heart of Christian theology.
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