This interdisciplinary study brings together many contemporary discourses about shame within a new critical perspective. It will be an invaluable, stimulating resource for all those who are concerned with understanding shame and assisting those whose lives are lived in the shadow of it. Psychologists, philosophers and therapists will find this a fascinating source of new insight into the theory and phenomenology of shame. It will be of particular interest to those who are interested in relationships between religion and mental health, to pastoral workers, and to religious thinkers and theorists.