Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity

Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity

Author: Gary B. Ferngren

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2016-08

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1421420066

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Drawing on New Testament studies and recent scholarship on the expansion of the Christian church, Gary B. Ferngren presents a comprehensive historical account of medicine and medical philanthropy in the first five centuries of the Christian era. Ferngren first describes how early Christians understood disease. He examines the relationship of early Christian medicine to the natural and supernatural modes of healing found in the Bible. Despite biblical accounts of demonic possession and miraculous healing, Ferngren argues that early Christians generally accepted naturalistic assumptions about disease and cared for the sick with medical knowledge gleaned from the Greeks and Romans. Ferngren also explores the origins of medical philanthropy in the early Christian church. Rather than viewing illness as punishment for sins, early Christians believed that the sick deserved both medical assistance and compassion. Even as they were being persecuted, Christians cared for the sick within and outside of their community. Their long experience in medical charity led to the creation of the first hospitals, a singular Christian contribution to health care. "A succinct, thoughtful, well-written, and carefully argued assessment of Christian involvement with medical matters in the first five centuries of the common era . . . It is to Ferngren's credit that he has opened questions and explored them so astutely. This fine work looks forward as well as backward; it invites fuller reflection of the many senses in which medicine and religion intersect and merits wide readership."—Journal of the American Medical Association "In this superb work of historical and conceptual scholarship, Ferngren unfolds for the reader a cultural milieu of healing practices during the early centuries of Christianity."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith "Readable and widely researched . . . an important book for mission studies and American Catholic movements, the book posits the question of what can take its place in today's challenging religious culture."—Missiology: An International Review Gary B. Ferngren is a professor of history at Oregon State University and a professor of the history of medicine at First Moscow State Medical University. He is the author of Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction and the editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction.


Jesus the Great Physician

Jesus the Great Physician

Author: Walter Hannay

Publisher:

Published: 2019-02

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781912522484

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Everyone needs a Doctor at some time, even if it is just to sign a death certificate! This book is written with a view of Jesus Christ as not only a Physician but the greatest Physician who ever lived. Thirty-seven miracles are recorded in the Gospels and as Mary Fairchild says: "None were performed randomly, for amusement or for show. Each was accompanied by a message and either met a serious human need or confirmed Christ`s identity and authority as the Son of God". Having been a Doctor for over forty years, I have viewed the healing miracles of the Lord Jesus in the gospels under medical categories as seen from a modern classification of disease. Not every miracle is therefore included - only those I see in a category of disease or medical specialty. I have added some relevant thoughts at times relevant to the miracle. The review is limited to the four Gospels although in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the Physician Luke tells us that in his Gospel he recorded the things that Jesus "began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up" (verses 1-2) to Heaven. He thus infers that Jesus is still doing and teaching through His Apostles in the book of Acts. Two of these are mentioned briefly in the book. The chapters have been arranged in chronological order rather in order of any perceived importance.


Jesus, the Divine Physician

Jesus, the Divine Physician

Author: Christoph Schönborn

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9781586171803

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Cardinal Schonborn, the well-known Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, and renowned spiritual writer and teacher, presents this third book in his series of meditations on the Gospels, seeking to help the reader to have a deep personal encounter with Jesus Christ as seen in the Sacred Scriptures. His first two books focused on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and this new book covers Luke.


The Healing Imperative: The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine as We Know It

The Healing Imperative: The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine as We Know It

Author: Mike Aquilina

Publisher: Emmaus Road Publishing

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1945125713

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“Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” —Luke 10:8-9 When Jesus sent seventy disciples on ahead of him, part of their mission was to heal the sick. In fact, they were supposed to heal the sick before they preached the Gospel. Best-selling author Mike Aquilina calls this command the healing imperative. And it’s an imperative that ushered in the world of modern medicine. The Healing Imperative: The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine as We Know It reconstructs the fascinating history of a uniquely Christian institution: the hospital. Underlining how the virtues of charity and hospitality motivated the first generations of Christians, along with Jesus’ explicit command to heal the sick, Aquilina shows just how revolutionary the actions of Christian doctors and nurses were and how they transformed society in ways that still reverberate today. The radical developments in health care spearheaded by Christians influenced culture, society, and civilization. As The Healing Imperative proves, now more than ever, the compassion of Christians is needed to guide the world of medicine. Jesus’ command still resonates, and Aquilina urges us to respond.


A Doctor at Calvary

A Doctor at Calvary

Author: Dr. Pierre Barbet

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2018-02-27

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1787209644

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‘We did not know; nobody has ever told us that!’ These were the words, spoken in tears, of Pope Pius XII on first reading passages from A Doctor at Calvary, Dr. Pierre Barbet’s scientific and reverent study of the Crucifixion of Christ. From an examination of the Holy Shroud of Turin—the authenticity of which Dr. Barbet accepts from medical evidence—a remarkable reconstruction of Christ’s terrible agony is presented in language that cannot fail to move the heart. What kind and what degree of physical torture did Our Lord suffer on Calvary? What was the medical cause of His death? These are among the questions answered in A Doctor at Calvary, one of the most significant contributions to Christological science in modern times. Christ’s preliminary sufferings—the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the scourging, the carrying of the cross—the wounds of the hands, in the feet, in the heart, the causes of the rapid death, and the entombment are recounted with the devotion and compassion of an ardent Christian and with a brilliant doctor’s accuracy of anatomical detail. ‘Without doubt this is one of the most gripping and moving books to have been published in many a year.’—Harold C. Gardiner, S. J. ‘As an aid to vivid viewing of the Passion, this book is peerless.’—Rev. John S. Kennedy, Balancing the Books ‘...a profoundly moving study of the Passion.’—Commonwealth ‘...a remarkable reconstruction of Christ’s agony and death.’—Jubilee ‘This volume is an outstanding example of how science can contribute not only to theology, but to solid Christian piety, and thus be an aid to love of Christ.’—The Voice ‘This is a gripping and powerful book of the highest stature.’—Voice of St. Jude ‘Sincere study of this book will enable us for the first time to understand what is behind the words: ‘Jesus suffered and died for us.”—America


Destroyer of the Gods

Destroyer of the Gods

Author: Larry W. Hurtado

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781481305389

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"Silly," "stupid," "irrational," "simple." "Wicked," "hateful," "obstinate," "anti-social." "Extravagant," "perverse." The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity--including branding Christianity "new." Novelty was no Roman religious virtue. Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods, Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a "bookish" religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day. In the rejection of the gods and in the centrality of texts, early Christianity obviously reflected commitments inherited from its Jewish origins. But these particular features were no longer identified with Jewish ethnicity and early Christianity quickly became aggressively trans-ethnic--a novel kind of religious movement. Its ethical teaching, too, bore some resemblance to the philosophers of the day, yet in contrast with these great teachers and their small circles of dedicated students, early Christianity laid its hard demands upon all adherents from the moment of conversion, producing a novel social project. Christianity's novelty was no badge of honor. Called atheists and suspected of political subversion, Christians earned Roman disdain and suspicion in equal amounts. Yet, as Destroyer of the gods demonstrates, in an irony of history the very features of early Christianity that rendered it distinctive and objectionable in Roman eyes have now become so commonplace in Western culture as to go unnoticed. Christianity helped destroy one world and create another.


Jesus Christ, Sun of God

Jesus Christ, Sun of God

Author: David Fideler

Publisher: Quest Books

Published: 1993-10-01

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9780835606967

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The early Christian Gnosis did not spring up in isolation, but drew upon earlier sources. In this book, many of these sources are revealed for the first time. Special emphasis is placed on the Hellenistic doctrine of the "Solar Logos" and the early Christian symbolism which depicted Christ as the Spiritual Sun, the illumination source of order, harmony, and spiritual insight. Based on 15 years of research, this is a unique book which throws a penetrating light on the secret traditions of early Christianity. It clearly demonstrates that number is at the heart of being. Jesus Christ, Sun of God, illustrates how the Christian symbolism of the Spiritual Sun is derived from numerical symbolism of the "ancient divinities."


Early Christian Writings

Early Christian Writings

Author:

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 1987-04-30

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0141915307

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The writings in this volume cast a glimmer of light upon the emerging traditions and organization of the infant church, during an otherwise little-known period of its development. A selection of letters and small-scale theological treatises from a group known as the Apostolic Fathers, several of whom were probably disciples of the Apostles, they provide a first-hand account of the early Church and outline a form of early Christianity still drawing on the theology and traditions of its parent religion, Judaism. Included here are the first Epistle of Bishop Clement of Rome, an impassioned plea for harmony; The Epistle of Polycarp; The Epistle of Barnabas; The Didache; and the Seven Epistles written by Ignatius of Antioch - among them his moving appeal to the Romans that they grant him a martyr's death.


Doctors who Followed Christ

Doctors who Followed Christ

Author: Dan Graves

Publisher: Kregel Publications

Published:

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780825494697

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Examines the lives and accomplishments of thirty-two physicians from throughout history whose Christian faith has influenced their work.