Home The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace by Eric G. Wilson (ISBN: 9780810126855)

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The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace Hardback - 2010

Name: The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace
Price: 18.40 GBP
Availability: InStock
Author: Eric Wilson
ISBN: 9780810126855

by Eric G. Wilson

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From the publisher

In his best-selling book Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, Eric G. Wilson challenged our culture's blindly insistent pursuit of happiness at all costs. In his harrowing yet ultimately hopeful memoir, The Mercy of Eternity, the author turns an unsparing eye on his own continuing struggle with bipolar depression and finds, within the very illness that causes so much suffering, the resources for hope, forgiveness, and love.

As a bright student-athlete on his way to West Point, Eric Wilson seemed to be well on the way to a fulfilling life. Yet he was haunted by overwhelming feelings of his deep insignificance. As he grew older, the traditional means of fulfillment--marriage and professional success--did nothing to assuage the descents into darkness and destructive behavior. Therapy and medication have offered some relief, but the birth of his daughter ultimately forces his hand. In some ways, the answer has been in front of him the whole time, for English professor Wilson finds in the literature of Coleridge, Blake, and others the lessons that depression might teach. When he comes upon "negative theology"--the school of thought that finds God in the "dark night of the soul"--Wilson discovers the framework for a radical call to forgive depression.

Only by forgiving this capricious, impersonal force is Wilson able to find the grace to move beyond the cycles of destructive self-absorption.Wilson admits that he continues to struggle, but in facing his depression instead of trying to escape it, he finds wisdom and grace.

Beautifully and accessibly written, The Mercy of Eternity is a brief yet profound meditation on the largest question of life.

Details

Title The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace
Author Eric G. Wilson
Binding Hardback
Edition First Edition
Pages 120
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Northwestern University Press
Publication date 2010-09
ISBN 9780810126855 / 0810126850
Weight 0.66 lbs (0.30 kg)
Dimensions 8.64 x 6.24 x 0.65 in (21.95 x 15.85 x 1.65 cm)
Themes
- Aspects (Academic): Medical/Medicine Aspects
Category Philosophy
Library of Congress subjects Manic-depressive illness, Depression, Mental
Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2010014991
Dewey Decimal Code B

About the author

ERIC G. WILSON is the Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University. His previous book, Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy (2008), was a Los Angeles Times and Calgary Herald best seller and was featured on NBC's Today Show, NPR's All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation, the BBC's Today Programme, and CBC's The Current. It was also featured or reviewed in Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the Globe and Mail, among many others.