Disability, Medicine, and Healing Discourse in Early Christianity

New Conversations for Health Humanities

Chris L de Wet editor Susan R Holman editor Jonathan L Zecher editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:18th Dec '24

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Disability, Medicine, and Healing Discourse in Early Christianity cover

Using contemporary theories drawn from health humanities, this volume analyses the nature and effects of disability, medicine, and health discourse in a variety of early Christian literature.

In recent years, the "medical turn" in early Christian studies has developed a robust literature around health, disability, and medicine, and the health humanities have made critical interventions in modern conversations around the aims of health and the nature of healthcare. Considering these developments, it has become clear that early Christian texts and ideas have much to offer modern conversations, and that these texts are illuminated using theoretical lenses drawn from modern medicine and public health. The chapters in this book explore different facets of early Christian engagement with medicine, either in itself or as metaphor and material for theological reflections on human impairment, restoration, and flourishing. Through its focus on late antique religious texts, the book raises questions around the social, rather than biological, aspects of illness and diminishment as a human experience, as well as the strategies by which that experience is navigated. The result is an innovative and timely intervention in the study of health and healthcare that bridges current divides between historical studies and contemporary issues.

Taken together, the book offers a prismatic conversation of perspectives on aspects of care at the heart of societal and individual "wellness" today, inviting readers to meet or revisit patristic texts as tracings across a map of embodied identity, dissonance, and corporal care. It is a fascinating resource for anyone working on ancient medicine and health, or the social worlds of early Christianity.

"En definitiva, estos estudios acercan al lector a la vida cotidiana de la antigüedad tardía y muestran cómo los problemas sanitarios y las respuestas que encontraban o perseguían no distaban tanto de las actuales. Los autores de este volumen muestran que estudiar el pasado desde una perspectiva más amplia y ponerla en diálogo con el presente es altamente enriquecedor y abre nuevas vías e interrogantes sobre los que será necesario transitar."

[In short, these studies bring the reader closer to the daily life of late antiquity and show how the health problems and the solutions they encountered or sought were not so different from those of today. The authors of this volume demonstrate that studying the past from a broader perspective and engaging it in dialogue with the present is highly enriching and opens new avenues and questions that will need to be explored.] - Exemplaria Clasica

"Disability, Medicine, and Healing Discourse in Early Christianity constitutes an important contribution to the discourse surrounding the complexity of medical phenomena, emphasizing their socially, culturally, and theologically structured nature. The essays come into dialogue with one another and offer a multidisciplinary approach to various aspectsof medicine and healing... the volume can ultimately challenge our views regarding the relationship between medicine and religion and illustrate their social implications." - The Byzantine Review

"[O]ffer[s] a good framework for bridging ancient and modern approaches to disability and health in the ancient world, and should become foundational if not seminal... for this discipline within ancient world studies." - The Classical Review

"[T]his work aims to represent a multidisciplinary approach to health and healing in the late ancient world. By integrating disparate topics, such as ethical ecological practices with pastoral care, it achieves this purpose. These essays bear witness to the ways in which modern medical discourses read in parallel with ancient ones cultivate new avenues of exploration and challenge scholars to scrutinize Christian texts anew... [A]ltogether this work offers a model for bridging the chasm of modern and ancient discourses."- Journal of Early Christian Studies

ISBN: 9780367531188

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 360g

186 pages