Stranger’s Voice

The Author: Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, Virginia and an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in Practical Theology and her clinical training at the Family Institute of Philadelphia and the Princeton Family Institute.

«‘The Stranger’s Voice’ introduces the relatively unexplored thought of Julia Kristeva to pastoral theologians and caregivers. With theological depth and clinical perception, Schweitzer reflects on the plight of women with depression in Christian communities. Kristevan metaphors such as the abject, the stranger, the voyager, and rebirth, with actions such as forgiving and a maternal discourse challenge the poverty of language that surrounds depression. If metaphors become models to live by, Kristeva’s metaphors elucidated by Schweitzer promise new possibilities of counseling and pathways of well-being. To ‘for-give’ is to offer someone a gift. The gift of this book is a sacramental understanding of depression and the rebirth that flows forth from loving and caring relationships. The ‘Stranger’s Voice’ is a liberating and insightful offering to all who know depression in the church or the clinic. » (Jaco J. Hamman, Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Western Theological Seminary)«‘The Stranger’s Voice’ is a beautiful testimony to what Julia Kristeva has to offer depressed women when her writings are framed and presented by a thoughtful pastoral theologian. Carol Schweitzer makes a compelling case for the role of the denial of the mother’s voice in the development of a woman’s self-alienation and resulting depressions, and she does so without resorting to maternal images formed under the aegis of a patriarchal Christianity. She also makes wonderful use of Kristeva’s understanding of ‘for-giving’ to envision prospects for healing and renewal. To write knowledgeably about Julia Kristeva’s work requires a sophisticated mind, but to make her work truly and genuinely accessible to other women is a pastoral gift. Some women who are experiencing depression will find this book inherently therapeutic while others will find the encouragement they need to seek a counselor who will help her discover the life that is already stirring within them. Men, especially those who have sensed that the denial of the mother’s voice has played a critical role in their own self-alienation and its melancholy moods, will discover that this book has much to offer them as well.» (Donald Capps, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton)