Fraternity in Humanity and Global Mental Health

Abstract

From the historical point of view, the concept of mental health is both in positive and negative terms very much intertwined with religion. We might say that, up to the modern age, there was no other treatment of what we now know as mental illnesses apart from the one offered by religion. Of course, in many cases superstition and brutality prevailed (they always come together, indeed); but, again, we may still look into religious tradition and find many inspiring examples that might help us solve some important problems regarding the mental health issues. The most important ones are, we find, those connected with interpersonal and social context of both their etiology and treatment. Following this line of thinking, we have selected two well-known texts from the New Testament in order to offer an interpretation of them which might answer some questions that we find are fundamentally important for dealing with such a broad theme regarding the relation between religious teachings and mental health.