This product will be available on January 19th, 2027
Description
When Compassion Becomes a Calling
What if the church became the safest place for people carrying invisible wounds? In Together in Brokenness and Wholeness, Simonetta Carr offers a deeply compassionate, intellectually rich, and biblically grounded invitation to rethink how Christians understand mental illness, suffering, weakness, and community. Drawing from Scripture, church history, theology, personal experience, and real-life stories, Carr challenges assumptions that isolate or stigmatize those struggling with mental distress and asks a compelling question: What treasures within Christian theology have we failed to apply?
Far from offering quick fixes or simplistic answers, this book equips readers to think carefully, love wisely, and cultivate churches marked by humility, hospitality, patience, friendship, and hope. Each chapter uncovers a core Christian doctrine and explores how it can shape more compassionate, truthful responses to mental health challenges while enriching the spiritual lives of entire communities.
Inside, readers will discover:
A hopeful, theologically grounded response to mental illness and stigma
Historical insights that illuminate modern assumptions about weakness and worth
Practical encouragement for churches, families, caregivers, and friends
A vision for Christian community where every person is valued, welcomed, and loved
Endorsements
Despite our best efforts, people keep suffering—and it tries our patience. The persistent inward challenges of people living with a mental illness can be particularly hard for us to bear, and Christians are tempted to use various strategies of blaming, moralizing, and spiritualizing in order to shift the burden and explain away the suffering of others. Simonetta Carr, who has learned patience from hard experience, shows us what a more biblical alternative looks like, and how it can build us up in patience, hope, and friendship with the mentally ill.
Phillip Cary Author, 'Good News for Anxious Christians'
... a thoughtful and heartfelt appeal on behalf of "the poor and needy who have no helper". Eleven dimensions of mutual care are commented on in as many chapters with questions for personal reflection or group discussion following each. Simonetta Carr has provided informative and sometimes uncomfortable reading, but I pray it will be transforming as well.
Hywel Jones
This is the book the church didn’t know it desperately needed. Drawing from the richness of historic Christian theology, Simonetta Carr reminds us what God has already provided so that we can recognize, welcome, and serve those who live with mental distress as indispensable members of Christ’s body.
Deborah Geesling President and Founder of P82 Project Restoration, Inc.
... historically informed, biblically sound, and compassionately written. It addresses real-world brokenness with helpful answers. I love this book.
Simonetta Carr is the author of many books and biographies, including the Christian Biographies for Young Readers series, 'Church History', 'Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them', and 'Questions Women Asked'. She lives in San Diego with her husband and her youngest son.
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