Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy

In the middle of his life, journalist David S. Awbrey plummeted into a hellish depression. Surveying a life he saw for the first time as shallow, materialistic, selfish, and spiritually impoverished, he could not stop his slide to the bottom, even with the help of psychotherapy and Prozac. He retreated into self-imposed solitude to restart his life by going back to school - literally and figuratively - to study what depression, or melancholy as it was called, has meant to other people. What he learned is what this book is all about. Awbrey began to see a different way of looking at our discontent. Drawing connections between his own experiences and readings in many disciplines, he analyzed the loss of our spiritual and cultural riches. Melancholy led him and can lead us back to religious faith. When professional status and worldly goods no longer fire the spirit, when self-absorption seems endlessly circular and fruitless, when the limits of psychotherapy are in sight, then it is possible to turn to the infinite and discover one's true self. In connecting with God, we step out of our isolation and connect with the larger community of our fellow humans.