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I'm Christa Tippett. Today, room for day, one family struggle with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia afflicts one in 100 American adults and often has a religious dimension.

This hour we'll hear how one family has learned to see human nature and

religious experience differently. We call it a delusion. He calls it reality.

People tell him he's not God. He's not Jesus. In his mind, that's

as real as my being a wife and mother. In some ways we're very fortunate because

Joel is still with us and he's still connected but tomorrow we could lose him

and we live in that knowledge and live in faith that no matter what happens

that our caring made a difference. This is speaking of faith. Stay with us.

I'm Christa Tippett. My guest today, Dan Hansen, has written an unusual book about living

with his son who has schizophrenia and who believes that he is God. Dan and his wife Sue

reflect frankly this hour on how they've learned to see mental illness,

normalcy and religion differently. From American public media, this is speaking of faith.

Public radio's conversation about religion, meaning, ethics and ideas.

Today, Room 4J, a family struggles with schizophrenia.

Dan and Sue Hansen raised their family on a small lake and a suburb of Minneapolis.

Dan was a corporate executive who eventually left to pursue his first love teaching.

Sue worked part-time, volunteered in the community and raised their three children.

...