Bible and Bedlam: Madness, Sanism, and New Testament Interpretation

Just like those confined to asylums in the past due to the ‘chaos’ they are presumed to pose, so voices of those variously castigated as ‘mad’ or ‘mentally ill/disabled’ in historical and contemporary discourses are frequently marginalized, confined or suppressed in ‘sanist’ disciplines such as biblical studies. Bible and Bedlam addresses this silencing by bringing mad studies and disability studies into lively exchange with selected biblical characterizations and authors in both history and interpretation.
Accounts of the causes and treatments of perceived madness and mental illness/disability have of course diverged significantly throughout recorded history and cross-culturally. However, the social stigma and deviance projected onto characters on account of such conditions is widely attested. With this in mind, in Bible and Bedlam Louise Lawrence probes and critically questions first, the social exclusion of those characters who are labeled as ‘disordered’ or ‘mad’ in biblical texts and second, provocatively unveils the widespread ideological ‘gate keeping’ and ‘protection’ from such labels in both history and scholarship of celebrated figures including Jesus, Paul, John the Evangelist and John the Seer. Voices (both ancient and contemporary) of those who are frequently labelled autistic, psychotic or mad are among those evocatively juxtaposed here with New Testament characters, authors and texts.