This book provides a provocative and original insight into the relationship between human nature and mental health. Drawing on his experience within nursing and hospital chaplaincy, John Swinton explores some vital issues surrounding the theology and practice of mental health care. He works out a model of care-in-community that offers a timely corrective to the individualized therapeutic approaches that have come to dominate the field of mental health studies. ‘From Bedlam to Shalom’ argues that genuine mental health care is the work of the whole church community, carried out primarily through the «forgotten» relationship of friendship. By imaging the radical compassion revealed in the friendship of Jesus, the church can recover a vital communal perspective on mental health care and in so doing, move people closer to their nature as creatures made in the image of a God who is love.