Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity Hardcover – April 15, 2009
Author: Visit Amazon's Gary B. Ferngren Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0801891426 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Review
Medical historians and historians interested in the classical age will welcome this well written book to their libraries. Medical practioners in every field with a strong interest in medical history will profit from reading it as well. Certainly, libraries at every medical university and graduate school will want this book.
(Doody's Review Service)Well written and well researched.
(Dr. John Shea MD Catholic Insight)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.
(JAMA)The story that [Ferngren] tells is provocative for Christian readers who live in a culture of fear and who tremble at the thought of new pandemics.
(Alan Kreider Christian Century)We must be grateful for this closely argued book and the light it sheds on early Christian health care.
(Andrew Dauton-Fear Journal of Theological Studies)Reading this book gives one the impression of discovering something new. One can see how some medical and social ideas were born, and how mutual relations between religion and medicine were developing.
(Halina Grzymala-Moszcynska and Adam Anczyk Religion)A very fine book. Well written, well researched, and remarkably original. It will have lasting impact.
(Rodney Stark, author of The Rise of Christianity)[An] excellent and thought-provoking work.
(Ildiko Csepregi Medical History)A highly important investigation in medicine and healing in early Christianity. A book that every scholar of healing in early Christianity should read.
(Vernon K. Robbins Practical Matters)Ferngren's approach and evidence are persuasive and a wonderful introduction to an element of early Christianity frequently overlooked, misunderstood, or both.
(James Benedict Brethren Life and Thought)A good book.
(Peregrine Horden Catholic Historical Review)Ferngren writes in an engaging manner that will be especially attractive to physicians who do not have a background in theology or Church history. This book would be of great interest to any Christian physician or health-care professional who is interested in learning more about medicine at the time of Christ and its impact on Christianity and, perhaps more importantly, Christianity's impact on the care of the ill.
(Patricia Fosarelli Linacre Quarterly)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)This is an important book, for students of Christian theology who understand health and healing to be topics of theological interest, and for health care practitioners who seek a historical perspective on the development of the ethos of their vocation.
(Peter H. Van Ness, Ph.D., M.P.H. Journal of Religion and Health)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... His arguments are always compelling and usually convincing. He shows how Christians lived out their faith as a positive healing and caring witness, boldly living out their Christianity as a persuasive alternative to the failed pagan responses to fellow human beings in need.
(James J. Rusthoven Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith)Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity, written with deep affection for the subject, is a rich study, important for any scholar interested in the emergence and development of medicine in the Christian society of late antiquity.
(Karl-Heinz Leven Isis)About the Author
Gary B. Ferngren is a professor of history at Oregon State University and editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, also published by Johns Hopkins.
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity Hardcover – April 15, 2009
- Hardcover: 264 pages
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (April 15, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801891426
- ISBN-13: 978-0801891427
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Dr. Ferngren presents a well-documented and rigorously researched account of how early Christians viewed medicine and what contributions early Christians made to the Western conceptualization of medicine. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of orthodox Christians in the early church did not view the body as evil and natural remedies for bodily ills an inherently pagan practice. Rather, following the dictum that "all truth is God's truth," Christians incorporated Greek medicine into their practices in caring for the sick. Early Christians were not miracle-workers, but ordinary inhabitants of the Roman Empire who cared for each other and those outside of the church with whatever means were at their disposal, including Greek medicine.
Those Christians, such as the ascetics, who refused medical treatment did so because they believed that one drew closer to God through suffering. Rather than believing that medicine was deplorable or suffering necessary to rid the soul of the body (as the Gnostics would have thought), the ascetics believed in the use of medicine to care for the suffering, but rejected medical care for themselves that they might grow closer to God through the travails of sickness.
Ferngren further discusses the great contribution of Christian thought to Western understanding of the sick and suffering. While the ancients largely ignored the poor, seeing only the rich and powerful as worthy of notice by the gods, Christianity saw all human beings as created in the image of God and thus worthy of God's attention. During plagues, Christians cared for the sick and suffering that the Roman government left to die on the streets. Eventually, Christians founded the first hospitals.
Christians believed first that they should care for the sick.
Book Review: Medicine & Health Care in Early Christianity
Gary Ferngren has done a great service for the church in researching and writing this scholarly book. The book itself is only 152 pages long but the endnotes and bibliography are another 100. There is a wealth of information in this book.
In the first chapter, Ferngren explains method, approach, and primary references in researching this topic. He also explains why he engaged in this endeavor and that is because much of the research in this field has been presumptive. In the following chapter, Ferngren discusses the early reception of Greek medicine into Christianity. He mentions Dr. Luke as well as some of the early Fathers who welcomed Hippocratic medicine. Moving on into the next chapter, Ferngren explores early Christian views of disease etiology. Here he dispels the common myth that early Christians saw all diseased as caused by demonic activity, and explores the naturalistic causes they saw behind some diseases. In chapter four, he refutes the common view that Christianity is a religion of healing. While he affirms the eschatological emphasis of physical healing at the second coming of Jesus, he sees Christianity cast primarily as a saving religion in the here and now. The next chapter considers medical philanthropy in the early church. Here Ferngren discuss how Christianity was the only religion in Greco-Roman society willing to care for those infected with diseases, exposed babies, and the leprous outcasts. In chapter six, Ferngren considers the early-organized healthcare efforts of the early church. Basil the Great founded the first hospital, and many would follow employing physicians and nurses. Ferngren provides some concluding observations and summarizes his study in the final chapter.
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