Dynamis of Healing

This book explores how traces of the energies and dynamics of Orthodox Christian theology and anthropology may be observed in the clinical work of depth psychology. Looking to theology to express its own religious truths and to psychology to see whether these truth claims show up in healing modalities, the author creatively engages both disciplines in order to highlight the possibilities for healing contained therein. Dynamis of Healing elucidates how theology and psychology are by no means fundamentally at odds with each other but rather can work together in a beautiful and powerful synergia to address both the deepest needs and deepest desires of the human person for healing and flourishing.

A guide for integrating Orthodox Christian practice into the healing work of depth psychology

Chaudhari Pia Sophia :

Pia Sophia Chaudhari holds a doctorate in theology from the department of Psychiatry & Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Her research interests include theological anthropology, depth psychology, processes of healing, and the engagement with aesthetics and beauty. She is a founding co-chair of the Analytical Psychology and Orthodox Christianity Consultation (APOCC).Purpura Ashley M. :

Ashley M. Purpura is an associate professor of religious studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University. She publishes on gender and Orthodoxy, and is the author of God, Hierarchy, and Power: Orthodox Theologies of Authority from Byzantium (2018).Papanikolaou Aristotle :

Aristotle Papanikolaou is professor of theology, the Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Orthodox Theology and Culture, and a Co-Director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. He is also McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion. He is the author of two monographs and numerous scholarly articles on Orthodox theology, as well as co-editor of ten volumes.Pia Sophia Chaudhari holds a doctorate in theology from the department of Psychiatry & Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Her research interests include theological anthropology, depth psychology, processes of healing, and the engagement with aesthetics and beauty. She is a founding co-chair of the Analytical Psychology and Orthodox Christianity Consultation (APOCC).

The Dynamis of Healing engages in the urgent work of building bridges between patristic thought and depth psychology, which facilitate the dialogue between the two vocabularies. She seems to me having captured a critical vein of patristic thought by attempting to attribute human nature its own wealth. Chaudhari highlights the basic optimism inherent in Orthodox theology and justifies psychotherapy within that framework, not only as an empirical way for regaining psychic balance and serenity, but also as a human means of attaining liberation from distorted psychic faculties and blossoming, potentially in Christ, and thus ‘paving His way.’---Rev. Vasileios Thermos, MD, PhD, Graduate Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens, Greece