Mixing Religion & Medicine?

In Boston on Friday, January 18, 2019, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.: “Religion and Medicine: Should They Mix?”, cosponsored by the Veritas Forum, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, and The Initiative on Health Religion, and Spiritually at Harvard Medical School (HMS). The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the HMS TMEC Amphitheater, 260 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115.

This event will feature Tia Powell (Director of Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Richard Sloan (Professor of Behavioral Medicine/Psychiatry, Columbia University), Lydia Dugdale (Associate Professor Term; Associate Director, Program for Biomedical Ethics; Co-Director, Yale Program for Medicine, Spirituality, and Religion), Tyler VanderWeele (Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health), and Howard Koh (Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Harvard University).

From the announcement:

There are many reasons for concern about physicians/healthcare providers bringing their religious beliefs into clinical practice. The power dynamic between physicians and patients can lead to unintended consequences, and some might say that since most physicians are not trained to talk about these issues, they should leave them to hospital chaplains. There is also the issue of time: clinicians have too much to do, so why add one more thing to their plate? On the other hand, many would acknowledge that religion/spirituality form an integral part of the lives of many patients and have profound implications on their health. A growing number of empirical studies suggest a relationship between religion and its impact on health and patient care. Why not include a spiritual history in addition to other clinical histories? This historic forum will feature a variety of perspectives on this issue. Those who wish to join a dinner and discussion immediately following the event (8:50-10:00PM) may RSVP here: https://goo.gl/forms/7fm9lmE7Kv3nb9Pq1

 

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Learn Global Health from Ancient Bones

How can classics and archaeology give us clues about the history of health and poverty? Take a look at this free online teaching tool of 9 mini-cases. A 20-page case set I wrote and designed for classroom use and discussion, it offers illustrated stories from the past and lessons for global health today.

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“Rethinking Medical Metaphors in Late Ancient Christianity”
New special issue of Studies in Late Antiquity, vol. 2, no. 4, winter 2018. Read more here. You may need institutional library access to read if you don’t subscribe to the journal; titles and abstracts are here:

• Kristi Upson-Saia: Guest Editorial
• Wendy Mayer: Medicine and Metaphor in Late Antiquity: How Some Recent Shifts are Changing the Field (viewpoint essay)
• Jared Secord: The Celibate Athlete: Athletic Metaphors, Medical Thought, and Sexual Abstinence in the Second and Third Centuries CE
• Emily R. Cain: Medically Modified Eyes: A Baptismal Cataract Surgery in Clement of. Alexandria
• John David Penniman: Blended with the Savior: Gregory of Nyssa’s Eucharistic Pharmacology in the Catechetical Oration
• Jessica Wright: The Brain as Treasury and as Aqueduct: Metaphors of the Brain in Theodoret of Cyrrhus

 

 

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Read more about the report, responses to date, and the need for longterm, low key, sensible and consistent action here.

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