Religion and Illness

Religion and Illness

Religion and Illness

Religion and Illness

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Overview

What are the relevant conceptualities and terminologies marking the coupling of religion and medical interpretations of illness in different religions such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity? How do religious orientations influence courses of a disease? How do experiences of illness change images of the divine in late modernity? This collection of essays from a symposium held at the International Research Institute of the University of Heidelberg examines connections between religious and medical interpretations of illness in different cultures in order to suggest criteria for coupling religion and medicine in ways that enhance rather than diminish life. By discerning which relationships between religion and medicine appear to be beneficial and which harmful, the book as a whole proposes criteria that are not limited to a single scientific approach, cultural tradition, or time period (such as the present). The book has four parts, which deal with Islamic medicine, Chinese medicine, and the relationship between religion and medicine in both Jewish and Christian traditions. All chapters cover from antiquity to the present.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781498293518
Publisher: Cascade Books
Publication date: 11/04/2016
Pages: 446
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Annette Weissenrieder is Professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union. She is author of Images of Illness in the Gospel of Luke: Insights of Ancient Medical Texts (2003).

Gregor Etzelmuller is Professor of Systematic Theology at Osnabruck University (Germany). He is author of Was geschieht beim Gottesdienst? (2014).

Table of Contents

List of Contributors vii

Religion and Illness: An Introduction Annette Weissenrieder Gregor Etzelmüller 1

Part 1 Religion, Illness, and Care of the Sick in Galen and in Islam

1 Religion and Therapy in Galen Teun Tieleman 15

2 Galenism Caught between Faith in God and "Prophetic Medicine" in Islam Gotthard Strohmaier 32

3 Medicine in Islam: Contested Autonomy Lutz Richter-Bernburg 44

4 Medical Concepts and Therapeutic Networks among Tamasheq Nomads in Mali Anna K. Münch 58

Part 2 Religion, Illness, and Care of the Sick in Asiatic Health Care

5 A Focus on the law or on the Individual? The Uncoupling of Religion and Health Care and the Emergence of Medical Science in Ancient China Paul U. Unschuld 77

6 Buddhist Principles of Tibetan Medicine? The Buddhist Understanding of Illness and Healing and the Medical Ethics of the rGyud-bzhi Jens Schlieter 90

7 Emotional Affliction and Mental Illness: From a Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist Perspective Martina E. Dannecker 114

Part 3 Religion, Illness, and Care of the Sick in the Old Testament and Judaism

8 Written on the Body: Body and Illness in the Physiognomic Tradition of the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament Angelika Berlejung 137

9 "Heal me, for I have sinned against you!" (Psalm 41:5 MT): On the Concept of Illness and Healing in the Old Testament Bernd Janowski 173

10 "Let This House Be Healed" (Psalm 51) Robert R. Coote 198

11 The Medical Interpretation of Jewish Religious Rites in the Nineteenth Century Klaus Hödl 215

12 "Whoever Saves a Soul Saves an Entire World": Pikuah Nefesh in Rabbinic Literature Lieve Thugels 235

Part 4 Religion, Illness, and Care of the Sick in Greco-Roman Antiquity and Christianity

13 Illness and Healing in Christian Traditions Gregor Etzelmüleer Annette Weissenrieder 263

14 Becoming a Doctor, Becoming a God: Religion and Medicine in Aelius Aristides' Hieroi Logoi Georgia Petridou 306

15 Interior Views of a Patient: Illness and Rhetoric in "Autobiographical" Texts (J. Annaeus Seneca, Marcus Cornelius Pronto and the Apostle Paul) Annette Weissenrieder 336

16 The Numinous Dimension in New Testament Narratives: Reorienting Miracle Research Werner Kahl 358

17 Word and Touch: Ritualizing Experiences of Illness and Healing in Christian Liturgical Traditions Andrea Bieler 396

18 Holistic Medicine in Late Modernity: Some Theses on the Efficacy of Spiritual Healing Anne Koch Karin Meissner 413

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Finally a cross-disciplinary scholarly compendium on religion and illness in a breathtakingly rich selection of texts, contexts, and topics. Invaluable as a resource for all interested in a more integrative approach towards medicine at the intersection of health and the holy, body and spirit, healing and theology."
—Brigitte Kahl, Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary (New York)

"Illness is a pressing topic of today—and of the past, too. This book gives valuable insights into different religions and their ways of interpreting and coping with illness. The contributors write in a hermeneutic, reflecting, and transdisciplinary way, so they research understandings of illness transcending the limits of the scientific worldview."
—Christian Grethlein, Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Munster

"Weissenrieder and Etzelmuller tell us about the concept of illness, ancient and modern, to be sure. But more than that, they and their contributors tell us how to think about our body. Actually, if we are our body, then they aid us in thinking about our self. A must for the serious student of historical and self-understanding."
—Ted Peters, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Theology and Ethics, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union

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