A Soul Under Siege

Surviving clergy depression

Plot

What do ministers do when they get depressed? Do they just work because "the show must go on"? Some ministers may, but C. Welton Gaddy did not. In this intensely personal book, described by Wayne E. Oates as "frank, considerate, and attention keeping," the author tells the story of how he "stopped the show," entered a well-organized, modern psychiatric unit, and received psychiatric care. He also tells of his discovery in the hospital of a more honest community than he had ever known in the church. Gaddy describes his experiences as a pastoral minister who went from good to bad health (including a deep depression) and back to even better health. In a sometimes painfully confessional but always soundly theological narrative, the author takes a realistic look at those aspects of ministry that can be destructive.