The Christian as a doctor

By James T. Stephens, Edward LeRoy Long, Jr.

Subjects: Physicians, Religious aspects, Religious aspects of Medicine, Medicine

Description: While the old-fashioned doctor had little trouble relating religion to his practice by means of pious behavior, the modern doctor is perplexed as to what difference religion makes in medical practice -- or what difference it ever did make. Like many moderns he finds religion, if he has it, something apart from life itself -- removed from occupational realities. He does not understand how Christian faith should affect the choice or conduct of an occupation. To let religion affect occupational decisions seems to many to be a dubious mixing of "religion and business," and pious behavior in a professional setting seems artificial and unreal. At many places in the following discussion it would seem that the Christian doctor does not differ from the non-believer in the everyday practice of his profession. The physician in this portrait is the modern informed man of good will. It is implied that he is a bit more perceptive of issues, more philosophical, more disciplined, more aware of how all actions are morally ambiguous, and alert to how pride destroys perspective. But in this book the Christian doctor is shown as shrinking from the claim that his faith distinguishes him from the agnostic or atheist in the practice of medicine. The image which emerges is one of a believing and perhaps even beloved physician whose characteristic disclaimer is like that of our Lord, "Why callest thou me good?" A Christian faith that can relate itself to modern life must speak the language of the new, modern doctor. It will not be heard if it urges a return to the expression of Christian piety that captured the public imagination in former years. The following is a "begin-where-you-are" approach which attempts to say: "There are spiritual dimensions to the doctor's job: sense them, cultivate them; deepen your insights as a physician, and you will find that you are not far from the Kingdom." Let no one suggest that the "Christian" depicted in these pages is a mildly convinced, ambivalent, inarticulate believer -- and yearn for a volume entitled "A Doctor Succeeds Through Prayer." This is an exploratory inductive study to lead readers into the fruitful pilgrimage of faith in contact with vocation itself which can result in a real synthesis of religion and life. It is offered in an earnest effort to help all physicians feel out the spiritual contours of their own vocation. - Preface.