"Mental health & Faith: The demon-possessed man in the Gerasene tombs was my ancestor"
Speakers: Catherine and Austin Mardon
Date and Time: Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 3:30pm
Location: St. Joseph's College Boardroom
Catherine and Austin Mardon are activists and advocates for mental health and the disabled. Catherine is a lawyer and author who has worked on a range of social and legal issues, from death penalty appeals in the United States to advocating for people affected by mental health and disability. She herself lives with PTSD due to a violent attack she suffered because of her work with the Oklahoma Conference of Churches. She is the author of many books, which have been translated into at least 18 languages.
Austin is a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada. Austin is diagnosed with schizophrenia and much of his advocacy and writing revolves around mental health issues. He holds a PhD from Greenwich University and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. He has started various scientific and humanistic foundations and is an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta. He is the author of at least 50 books.
Please join us for a conversation about mental health and faith, facilitated by Catherine and Austin Mardon. We will be talking through modern medicine, choice, and faith traditions as a context for acceptance of mental illness. As Austin has noted, with reference to the story of the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20): "It could have been me!!! I could have been that man running amok in the cemetery."