Mad Practical Theology : Unearthing Voices from Psychiatric Archives

Mad Practical Theology introduces a new sub-discipline where madness is not a case study but the ground from which theology erupts. Wound before word. Structured as a cathedral using the Method of Loci, each chapter is a room to be entered — confessional, belfry, tomb, sanctuary — moving through a rhythm of witness, practice and rest. Panton presents two original methodologies: Palimpsest, which scrapes psychiatric archives until erased voices bleed through, and Marrow, which reads the body as scripture. Together they form “One Wound, Two Tongues.” At the heart of the book is a Mad Christology: the claim that Christ''s divinity is disclosed inside madness, not outside it. Rooted in Mad Studies, crip theology, queer theology, and disability justice, the book braids original archival research with the author’s own inner archive. It offers six commitments, field templates, liturgies, and a Lectionary of the Ward — tools for a theology that bleeds.