Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity
eBook - ePub

Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity by Gary B. Ferngren in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Medical Theory, Practice & Reference. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. 1. Methods and Approaches
  7. 2. The Christian Reception of Greek Medicine
  8. 3. Early Christian Views of the Etiology of Disease
  9. 4. Christianity as a Religion of Healing
  10. 5. The Basis of Christian Medical Philanthropy
  11. 6. Health Care in the Early Church
  12. 7. Some Concluding Observations
  13. Abbreviations
  14. Notes
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index