With John Swinton
You’re invited to Regent's 2025 Evening Public Lecture series! Join us in the chapel or tune in online to explore theology, culture, and much more with this year’s summer faculty.
To livestream this and other Evening Public Lectures, visit us at rgnt.net/live.
About the Lecture
In a world that often demands optimism and relentless positivity, the Christian tradition offers a countercultural response—lament. Lament is not the absence of faith but its deepest expression, an act of resistance against despair that testifies to God’s presence even in God’s seeming absence. This lecture explores the paradoxical relationship between joy and suffering, considering biblical, theological, and pastoral perspectives on lament as a necessary practice for spiritual health. Drawing on Scripture, theology, and lived experience, we will examine how lament shapes authentic worship, fosters communal solidarity, and reframes mental health struggles within the life of faith.
About the Speaker
John Swinton is a Scottish theologian and former mental health nurse currently based at the University of Aberdeen. As a practical theologian, he specializes in the intersection of theology, mental health, and disability. His research focuses on how Christian theology engages with profound intellectual disability, dementia, schizophrenia, and other mental health conditions, offering theological perspectives on suffering, personhood, and vocation. Prof. Swinton is the founder of Sacred Minds: A Network for Theology, Mental Health, and Culture, which fosters global dialogue on mental health across cultural contexts. He is an author and speaker, having written extensively on the theology of mental health, including works like Dementia: Living in the Memories of God and Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefulness, and Gentle Discipleship. In 2025, Prof Swinton will deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. A singer-songwriter and podcast host, his work also explores the intersection of theology and music.
John Swinton is teaching Theology, Mental Health & the Problem of Suffering from May 12 to May 16 as part of Regent's 2025 Summer Programs.
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