All Creation Groans

Toward a Theology of Disease and Global Health

Daniel W. O'Neill, Beth Snodderly, Daniel W. O'Neill, Beth Snodderly

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781725290112, 9781725290105
• eBook ISBN: 9781725290129
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In a suffering world reeling from global pandemics and health disparities, it is high time to think theologically about the devastating experience of disease, and to address our God-inspired responsibility to understand its origins and engage in its management. In a fragmented world, we need a unifying and integrated perspective on people in communities embedded in a fractured ecology. In an academic world blind to the spiritual world and imbalanced toward technical solutions, the global church must articulate a contemporary metanarrative that is moral, practical, and deeply transformational.All Creation Groans brings together multiple perspectives for a compelling global-health approach to the pathologies of the world as a part of the missio Dei. The authors paint a unifying perspective on God's healing intentions in creation, redemption, and consummation, and the opposing nature-corrupting effects of the rebellion of created moral agents. It is a fresh call for the global church to engage in aligning with God's healing action for eternally sustainable global health.

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Historical, Contemporary, and Globalized Theologies of Disease

—Daniel W. O’Neill

An understanding of the interface between the spiritual realms and the physical causes of disease has not been well developed. I live in the Western world of biomedicine for which I have trained and practiced my whole adult life—a complex discipline of identifying the origin of disease and seeking to prevent, displace, or destroy the causative agent, and to restore normal structure and function. I also dwell in the world of Christian theology and mission in various contexts, seeking to wisely engage the world of brokenness with purpose, informed by the ancient texts, and driven to expand the reign of God. So it seems vital to articulate spiritual, metaphysical, social, and moral elements of disease and health for the development of a sound practical theology, a relevant missiology, an effective global health engagement, and a more informed practice of medicine.

Winter’s and Fountain’s Contributions

In my readings and personal conversations with missiologist Ralph Winter and medical missionary Daniel Fountain, I was challenged to integrate my understanding of biblical realities, missional priorities, and my daily work on the human person—what Albert Schweitzer called “the fellowship of those who bear the mark of pain.”1 Fountain called for active resistance in the fight against personified evil and the multitude of etiologies of disease, with “the hope of ultimate liberation from evil and the strength to cope with the present experience of suffering.”2 His was a comprehensive approach, which accounted for both the promises and limitations of medical care, counseling, and social movements for justice. It was tempered by his decades of service in Central Africa where he applied Scripture to the front lines of life and death. Fountain found that a gospel-focused approach to illness liberated others from disease, addictions, and sin, even as the inevitability of death is approached. I agree with him that this engagement is the most exciting adventure of life.3

Winter emphasized the value of engaging with the proximate causes of disease and exploring the connections between the physical and metaphysical in a broader scope of Christian mission. Though I embraced this integrated view which affirmed my profession and pastoral calling, his modernist approach seemed a bit narrow in that he reduced human affliction to “germs” and seemed, to many, as overly prescriptive in suggesting that Christians should turn their attention to “eradication.” He may have used a bit too much hyperbole in downplaying the care given to the already-afflicted, the spiritual value of lament, or the patient endurance called for in the context of suffering.

But Winter wisely suggested turning our attention to the diabolical upstream etiologies of “physical distortions and intellectual delusions” which affect human health on a global level.4 This represented an important theological correction to the soul-focused, proclamation-based (or even prioritized) endeavors of evangelicals in the late twentieth century. It also challenged the materialist assumptions of Western biomedicine, and the de-mythologized tendencies of liberal theology. God is indeed able to work through people to practice what Winter called a “public theology.”5 In tangible ways, God’s people can bring about transformation and reflect the healing presence of the God who saves and rescues from the distortions and delusions that undermine human flourishing. This is similar to what Francis Schaeffer called “substantial healing,”6 and what Samuel Escobar called “transforming service,”7 which validates and confirms the truth and fullness of the gospel message. But how can this be worked out in practice?

It might be construed as a utopian ideal to “scout the very origins of disease,” in order to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV).8 But passive waiting for the parousia or practicing idleness (ataktos, disorder) was rebuked in the first century (1 Thess 5:14) as against the creation mandate of ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Historical, Contemporary, and Globalized Theologies of Disease
• Chapter 2: The Biblical Context for a Theology of Disease
• Chapter 3: A Theology of Creation
• Chapter 4: Early Church Perspectives on the Cosmic Conflict
• Chapter 5: Sin and the Etiology of Disease
• Chapter 6: A Theology of Health for the Nations
• Chapter 7: A Theology of Ecology
• Chapter 8: A Theology of Love in the First Epistle of John
• Chapter 9: Health and Disease
• Chapter 10: The Concept of Disease in the Pentecostal Tradition
• Chapter 11: Life from Death
• Chapter 12: Public Health Approaches to Disease from Antiquity to the Current Day
• Chapter 13: A West African Perspective on God and Disease
• Chapter 14: An East African Perspective on God and Disease
• Chapter 15: A Scientist’s Perspective on Disease and Death
• Chapter 16: A Practical Missiology Regarding Disease and Healing
• Chapter 17: A Missiology That Includes Fighting Disease
• Chapter 18: An Enemy Did This
• Chapter 19: Why Creation Groans
• Epilogue