Alina Feld

This probing study of melancholy invites readers to view "depression" genealogically through the history of its interpretation. It plumbs interior depths where psychology, theology, philosophy, and literary creation intersect. Therapies proposed for the dark mood have included work, prayer, care of the self, and deepening awareness of its indispensable role in the development of consciousness of oneself and God. Reflecting on these historical responses and cures can prompt a personal exploration, making this a practical manual for self-knowing and self-transcending, a philosophical "guide for the depressed."

Although a theoretical connection between radical theology and Hinduism is not immediately apparent, this chapter argues in support of such connectedness. As an apocalyptic reversal of orthodox doctrines and retrieval of a more authentic Christian core, radical theology deploys the main principles operative in the tradition of Yoga, and especially Tantra. The hermeneutic dialectic between hegemonic and subaltern interpretations in both Christianity and Hinduism have elicited ever deeper understandings of the original kerygma. Both are radicalizing their respective traditions and enacting revolutionary forms of coincidentia oppositorum, incorporating the other, the repressed, in all its forms.