The Science of Spiritual Medicine: Orthodox Psychotherapy in Action

The Science of Spiritual Medicine develops the issues first presented in Orthodox Psychotherapy.

The first section considers the difference between the Orthodox approach to curing the soul and the psychotherapeutic approach that operates on the merely human, psychological level, while emphasising that there are, of course, disorders that belong squarely within the realm of conventional medicine.

Next the author His Eminence the Metropolitan Hierotheos looks at such disorders of the soul as self-love, envy, self-indulgence and despair, and considers how they can be cured. The problems caused by imagination and fantasy are considered in depth. There is a fascinating and practical chapter on the devil and his wiles that everyone fighting the good fight should read. Other issues discussed include spiritual priesthood, spiritual fatherhood, bringing up children and divine providence.

The Patriarch Joseph and St Macrina, as well as more recent saintly figures, are presented as examples of those who have been wholly cured by living in accordance to God’s commandments.

The Science of Spiritual Medicine concludes with a chapter on deification, to remind us of the aim of ‘spiritual medicine’.