Global Human Thriving: A Christian Perspective

(excerpt) Talking about global human thriving from a decidedly religious point of view requires interpreting a particular religious tradition in light of today’s ubiquitous ecological, economic, and political challenges. One cannot any longer stay content with a monologic explanation of happenings based on an authoritarian, unilateral interpretation of holy writ and the wisdom of old, at least not according to the Christian perception of life and human responsibility, because global issues like climate change, water scarcity, and nuclear overkill—to mention only a few—indiscriminately threaten the continuation of all of life as known so far. These issues compel us to pursue the quest for human thriving as an interdisciplinary, transcultural, and inter-religious discourse in order to come to appropriate sustainable solutions. What can Christians contribute to this discourse

The Calling of Nursing

(excerpt) Baffled by the broad variety and diversity of nursing and unable to discover one single common thread of thought and discussion in the literature, I got desperate and finally turned to Dean Brown for help, hoping to get some viable direction. And, indeed, I did, yet of course not the way I expected. When I asked her if she would be so kind as to name me the standard instruction textbook used for nursing education and practice, she unhesitatingly replied: \u27There isn’t one. Because there are so many content areas in nursing, there is no one text that is considered the ultimate one that must be used by all.\u27 And when further asked about the \u27reference work for the history of nursing in the US\u27 her reply was: \u27I don’t think there is one most reliable source.\u27 So there I was, my puzzlement now confirmed by a knowledgeable authority

Wellness, Health, and Salvation : About the Religious Dimension of Contemporary Body-Mindedness

Alluding to the enormous investments in wellness, health, and anti-aging by affluent US society today the article focuses on the anthropological and religious implications of this phenomenon by stating that the pursuit of such caring for the body has superseded the quest for salvation. The first section provides a historical background analysis of how the contemporary semi-religious bodymindedness came about, while the second part analyses wellness, health, and salvation from a phenomenological point of view. It shows that any body image which does not address human frailty turns into something utterly inhumane while a religiously informed anthropology, in contrast, not only accepts frailty, dying, and death as realities of life but situates these experiences within a broader frame of reference and meaning thereby setting people free to leave behind at the proper time anxieties and worries about body-upkeep and to embrace life in the face of death

Living with Religious Plurality: Some Basic Theological Reflections on Interrelgious Dialogue

Since religious plurality has become a common feature of the globalized world, religious literacy is needed not only to cope meaningfully with this diversity but also to sustain peaceful coexistence. The article sets out to first expound the concept of convivencia before it critically analyzes different models of interreligious dialogue that have been proposed. It shows that while all such models have heuristic values they nevertheless need to be deconstructed for the sake of dialogue to happen. Addressing the need for a genuinely religious approach to the issue the final section states that the outcome of any such dialogue can never be guaranteed nor is it certain. Yet taking the risk implies — at least potentially — a genuine encounter with the truly Ultimate that might reveal itself as such in the course of dialogue thereby enabling people to appreciate their lived differences without jeopardizing peaceful convivencia

Christ as Physician: The ancient Christus medicus trope and Christian medical missions as imitation of Christ

Only a few people will know that as early as the second century AD, Christ was called a physician. Not being scriptural, this nomenclature originally reflected the looming rivalry with the pagan Asclepius cult very popular in Hellenistic times. Yet, despite its polemic background, that designation grew into an accepted rhetorical trope for Christians since it was regarded as well-suited to illustrate the corporeality of salvation. It implied that redemption is as corporeal as the work of medical practitioners, an aspect crucial for Christian medical missions. This article first provides a sketch of the early occurrences of the Christus medicus trope documenting only some of the crucial texts (I). In the second part, the article addresses the imitatio Christi motif, that is, the call to imitate Christ, because imitatio Christi had become somewhat typical for arguing the cause of medical missions in their nascent stage. This had to do with breath-taking developments in medicine beginning in the latter part of the nineteenth century, which suddenly empowered physicians to effectively heal diseases plaguing people from time immemorial. Pious doctors, thus, felt urged to imitate Christ by going out on missions to share the Good News and to heal (II). Concluding remarks plead for reckoning the unique vocation and ministry of medical missions within and for the Church, namely to hold fast to the corporeality of salvation