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Conference on Medicine and Religion

2019 Conference Schedule (As of January 22, 2019)  

Friday
March 29, 2019

7:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.: Registration/Information  (Terminal Atrium A, Second Floor)

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.:  Pre-Conference Activities 

Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis Tour  (9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.)

This tour will bring attendees to a culturally significant sacred site near the hotel in St. Louis. At the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, we will be joined by a guide who will discuss the history, architecture, and vision for the space and who will field questions from participants. Additionally, a speaker will discuss the its significance in terms of health and healing.  

A bus/van will leave the hotel at 9:30 a.m.  The tour will include lunch.  Participants will return to the hotel in time for the start of the conference.


Workshops  9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. (I and II) and 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. (III and IV)

I. Deep Listening: Making the Unconscious Conscious During Difficult Decision Making (Burlington Route)

Led by Mary Browne, MSW, M. Div., BCC, ACPE Certified Educator, Director Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Services, Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital and Faculty of Clinical Pastoral Education, Memorial Hermann Health System, and Emily Owen, M.Div., Staff Chaplain, Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, Houston, Texas.

II. Designing A Well-Balanced Life: A Workshop for Leaders (Frisco)

Led by Benjamin Doolittle, M.D., M.Div., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Yale University.

III. They Named Her "Miracle": Understanding and Responding to the Hope for Miracles in Pediatric Medicine (Burlington Route)

Led by Trevor Bibler, Ph.D., MTS, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX and Alex Lion, DO, MPH, Indiana University School of Medicine, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology.

IV. When Medicine and Religion Meet at the Bedside of Critically Ill Cancer Patients, Do They Run Parallel, Intersect or Crash with Each Other? (Frisco)

Led by Susan Gaeta, M.D., FACP, Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Emily Owen, M.Div., Staff Chaplain, Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, Houston, Texas; and Peggy Determeyer, Ph.D., McGee Fellow in Bioethics and Aging, Hope and Healing Center, Houston, TX. 

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.: Lunch (on your own)

 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: Muslim Juma/Friday Prayers  (Jeffersonian)

1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.: CONFERENCE BEGINS - Parallel Sessions

Papers​ 

(1:00 p.m. - 1:25 p.m.)


Proselytizing Positivism: Deconstructing the Shaming of Spirituality in Western Medicine and the Case for Medical School Chaplaincy (Colorado Eagle)

Religion’s Influence in Modern Medical Charity: A Qualitative Study on the Motivations of Healthcare Volunteers at a Free Medical Clinic (Texas Special)

Justice in Hospice & Palliative Care: The Ethical Obligation to Expand Access to Holistic Care  (Wabash Cannonball)

Time In The Clinical Context: How Monastic Hospitals Re-inform The Clock (Frisco)

(1:25 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.)

Jan Patočka on Myth: Observations on the Foundations of Religious Belief and Medical Decision Making (Colorado Eagle)

"It Is Right and Just": Liturgy and Catholic Health Care Ethics (Texas Special)

Gender by Dasein? A Heideggerian Critique of Suzanne Kessler and the Medical Management of Children Born with Disorders of Sexual Development (Frisco)

(1:50 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.)

Secular Exemptions: Between Religious Freedom and Patient Choice (Colorado Eagle)

Undermining the Cartesian Foundations of Modern Medicine: Descartes, Thomas Aquinas, and the Human Body (Texas Special)


Learning to Bear the Pain of Others: Biomedical and Theological Considerations of Vicarious Suffering Among Medical Trainees (Wabash Cannonball)

The Role of Religion in Medical Education (Frisco)

Panel

​
The National Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health: Investigating the Biological Mechanism through which Spirituality Affects Health across Diverse Religious, Racial, and Ethnic Communities (Burlington Route)

Workshop 

(1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.)

Scholarly Publishing in a New Era (Missouri Pacific) 

2:15 p.m. - 2:40 p.m. Break

2:40 p.m. - 4:10 p.m.: Welcome and Plenary One (Ballroom)

  Welcome --

Michael Balboni, Ph.D., Th.M., M.Div., Dana Farber Cancer Institute, CMR Conference Co-Chair

Jeffrey Bishop, M.D.,Ph.D.,  St. Louis University, CMR Conference Co-Chair
         ​
"Philosophical Foundations of Medicine and Religion"
by Daniel Sulmasy, M.D., Senior Research Scholar,
​The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University

Respondents:  Kimbell Kornu, MD, PhD, Asst. Professor of Palliative Medicine and Health Care Ethics, St. Louis University and Ruaim Muaygil, MBBS, MBE, Graduate Student, Albert Gnaegi Center for Healthcare Ethics, St. Louis University  

4:10 p.m. - 4:35 p.m.: Break

4:35 p.m. - 5:50 p.m.: Parallel Sessions

Papers

(4:15 p.m. - 4:40 p.m.)

The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Conceptualizing Reproductive Loss in Gestational Surrogacy (Colorado Eagle)

A Response-Ability to Fatalism, Fanaticism, and Tranquilization--What's a Doctor to Do? Case Studies and Conversation with Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul (Texas Special)

The Distinct Visions of Death in Secular and Christian Arts of Dying  (Burlington Route)


Human-on-a-Chip:  Medical Breakthrough or a Violation of Human Dignity? (Frisco)

​The Magical Foundation of Empirical Studies of the Efficacy of Intercessory Paper (Missouri Pacific)

(4:40 p.m. - 5:05 p.m.) 

Spirituality: The Story of Hermannus Contractus (Colorado Eagle)

Begotten Not Made: Monogenḗs, Birth and Ectogensis - A Theo-Ethical Appraisal (Texas Special)


“A Picture Held Us Captive”: Using Wittgenstein to Reimagine Disability and “Dis-ease” (Wabash Cannonball)

Assessing Denver Religious Leaders' Attitudes, Practices, and Congregational Experiences with Childhood Vaccines (Burlington Route)

The Trends of Nkukut in Health Issues Among the Annang People of Nigeria (Frisco)

A Naturalized Approach to Reconciling Religion and Medicine (Missouri Pacific)

(5:05 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.)

Evidence Based Medicine in an Era of Post-Truth and Alternative Facts (Colorado Eagle)

"Suffer the Little Children": Integrating Medical and Theological Education for the Care of Pediatric Oncology Patients (Texas Special)


The Closing of the Medical Mind: How Medical Education Has Failed Patients and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Medical Students (Wabash Cannonball)

Method in Theology and Oncology: Bernard Lonergan's Cognitional Theory and the Foundations of Medicine and Religion (Burlington Route)

A "Good Death": Perspectives of Muslim Patients and Health Care Providers (Frisco)

​Why Should Medicine Care About Religion? An Argument Concerning Foundations (Missouri Pacific)

(5:30 p.m. - 5:55 p.m.)

The Spiritual Exercises and Professional Identity Formation in Medical Education (Colorado Eagle)

Impact of Small Group Reflection Sessions in Junior and Senior Medical Students (Texas Special)


Christian Bioethics and Academic Practice in Russia (Burlington Route)

Being Moved: Maximus on Gregory's Love for Lepers (Wabash Cannonball)

The Pastoral Role of the Physician (Frisco)

Disability and the Need for Theological Anthropology in Medicine (Missouri Pacific)​
5:55 - 6:30 p.m.   Break

6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.:  Dinner Discussions at Area Restaurants (Sign-up at the Registration/Information Table)

6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.:  Shabbat Dinner (Pre-registration required.)


Saturday
March 30, 2019

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.: Registration/Information (Terminal Atrium A, Second Floor)

7:00 a.m. - 7:45 a.m.: Catholic Mass (Frisco) & Protestant Worship (Burlington Route)

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.: Continental Breakfast (The Marketplace)

8:00 a.m. - 9:40 a.m.: Parallel Sessions

Papers

(8:00 a.m. - 8:25 a.m.)


Partnership for Advanced Care Planning: Preparing for the Final Transition (Colorado Eagle)

A Holistic View of the Causes, Treatment and Prevention of Diseases (Burlington Route)

(8:25 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.)

Medicine as a Means to What End? Foundations and Fragments in Healing Narratives (Colorado Eagle)

Developing a Philosophy of Healing using an Islamic Epistemological Framework (Burlington Route)

(8:50 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.)

Searching for Diversity and Common Approach – A Report from a Group of Clergy and Psychotherapists' Clinical Seminars (Colorado Eagle)

Relationship as the Basis of Engagement between Psychiatric Medicine and Religion/Spirituality (Burlington Route)

​Panels

(8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.)


Returning the Soul to Psychology, an Islamic Sufi Perspective (Texas Special)

​An Interactive Conversation About the State of the Art, the Life of the Practitioner and the Care of Patients and Families (Wabash Cannonball)

​Whose Body, Whose Spirit?: Early Christian Attitudes Toward the Development of Medicine (Missouri Pacific)


Workshop

(8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.)


Reading & Resting: Practices for Faithfully Navigating Burnout in Medicine (Frisco)

9:40 a.m. - 10:05 a.m.: Break

10:05 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.: Plenary Two (Ballroom)

 Papers

(9:30 a.m. - 9:55 a.m.)


Cultural and Acultural Foundations: Surveying the “Question of Foundations” through Engelhardt, Wittgenstein, and St. Gregory Palamas (Colorado Eagle)

Efficient Causation and Principalism: A Bishopian Analysis of Medical School Bioethics (Wabash Cannonball)

Understanding the Opioid Crisis in a Theological Key: A Case Study in Tennessee (Burlington Route)

A Shared Telos? Two Paths of Becoming God: Technology and Cooperation (Missouri Pacific)

(9:55 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.)

The Dis-Ordered Self: Reenvisioning a Foucauldian Prescription for Ethics and Spirituality in Personality Pathology (Colorado Eagle)

The Cure of Souls: Common Concepts & Practices in Medicine & Spirituality (Wabash Cannonball)​

Collateral Blessings: Lessons from Harvey about Trauma, Recovery, and Spiritual Community (Burlington Route)

"Spontaneously Idolatrous": A Theological Consideration of Medicine and "Religion" (Missouri Pacific)

(10:20 p.m. - 10:45 a.m.)

The Empathetic Basis and Shared Foundation of the Human Person for Religion and Medicine (Colorado Eagle)

The Suffering Body and the Significance of Presence (Wabash Cannonball)

Dissecting the Fear of Becoming a Burden (Burlington Route)

Forming a Well-Formed Conscience:  Brain Death in Catholic Medical Ethics (Missouri Pacific)

Panels

(9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.)


Editors-Meet-Critic: Spirituality and Religion in the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to Practice (Texas Special)

Holistic Healing: An Islamic Sufi Perspective (Frisco)

​11:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.:  Plenary Two  (Lunch) (Regency Ballroom)
​

"Empirical Foundations of Medicine and Religion"
​Tyler Vanderweele, Ph.D., Co-Director, Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality, Harvard University 
Respondents: Farr Curlin, M.D. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities, Duke University and Ysabel Johnston, Ph.D. student  Theology and Bioethics, Saint Louis University

11:20 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Break
11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.: Parallel Sessions
Papers

(1:00  p.m. - 1:25 p.m.)


Welcoming a Dying Child: Theology of Children in Response to Euthanasia (Wabash Cannonball)  STUDENT ESSAY -- First Runner-up

Psychotic Symptoms, Mystical Experiences: Applying the Methodologies of St. Teresa of Avila to Contemporary Clinical Practice (Frisco)

(1:25 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.)

Bringing Psychiatry into the Mosque: Analysis of a Community Psycho-education Intervention(Colorado Eagle)

​The Troublesome Intersection of Religious Conscientious Objection, Abortion, Ethics, and the Law (Wabash Cannonball)


Do We Know the Natural Law on Gender Transition?: Limitations, Confusions, & Ways Forward (Frisco)

​(1:50 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.)

​
Philosophy, Medicine, and Bodies: The Making of Cultural Consciousness in the Islamic World (Colorado Eagle) STUDENT ESSAY -- Second Runner-up

​Recovering Authority in Medicine and Counseling: Polyani and Calvin as Strange Bedfellows (Wabash Cannonball)


Religion/Spirituality and the Psychiatry Milestone Project: A Competency-Based Curriculum for Residency Training (Frisco)

Panels

(1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.)


The Arrest of Jumana Nagrawala: Limits of Physician Autonomy, Rituals and Religious Freedom (Texas Special)

Searching for a Foundation for Medicine that Christians Share with Those Who are not Christians  (Missouri Pacific)


​Workshop

(1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.)


“Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen…” Or Do They? Proposing Medicine’s Faithful Response to Black Suffering and Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities (Burlington Route)
1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. Lunch and Speed Dating
​2:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Parallel Sessions
Papers

(2:30 p.m. - 2:55 p.m.)


The Professionalization of Prophetic Ministry: Time to Rethink Our Approach? (Colorado Eagle)

An Overdue Union:  What Islamic Bioethics Can Learn from Islamic Feminism (Burlington Route)

Religion, Spirituality and Medicine: Impact of an Educational Intervention for Medical Students and Physicians (Frisco)

Methodological Foundations in Bioethics:  Towards a More Generative Relationship between Medicine and Religion (Missouri Pacific)

(2:55 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.)


Namaste Theory: A Quantitative Grounded Theory on Religion/Spirituality in Mental Health Treatment (Colorado Eagle)

Judaism, Medical Ethics, Secularism, and Post Modernism: Perspectives Beyond Heschel (Wabash Cannonball)

The Church as a Resource: Case Study of a Transplant Patient (Burlington Route)

Physiological and Psychosocial Factors in Spiritual Need Attainment for Community-Dwelling Elders (Frisco)

Religion and the Sciences of the Soul: The Contributions of Nikolas Rose (Missouri Pacific)

(3:20 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.)


Chronic Disease with Progressive Disability: Role of the Spiritually Trained Clinician (Colorado Eagle)

Every (Dis)abled Must Converge: Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Flannery O'Connor, and the Body of Christ (Wabash Cannonball)  STUDENT ESSAY AWARD WINNER

Assessment of Religious Beliefs about End-of-Life Medical Care (Burlington Route)

Florence Nightingale: Religious Foundations of her Life and Work (Frisco)

Rescuing Medicine From the Corpse: A Theological Anthropology of Gift/Self-Gift for Medicine and Ethics
(Missouri Pacific)

Panel

(2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.)


Book Discussion: Essential Readings in Medicine and Religion (Texas Special)
3:30 p.m. - 3:55 p.m.: Break

 3:55 p.m. - 5:10 p.m.: Plenary Three (Regency Ballroom)
​

"Historical Foundations of Medicine and Religion"
Rebecca Messbarger, Director of Medical Humanities, Washington University
Respondents: Alan Astrow, MD, Chief, Hematology-Medical Oncology/Professor of Clinical Medicine, New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine and Gary Ferngren, PhD, Professor of History; Sandy and Elva Sanders Eminent Professor, Oregon State University

5:10 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Break
 5:30 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.: Plenary Session Three

6:45 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. Reception and Poster Session

Sunday
March 31, 2019

7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.: Registration/Information (Terminal Atrium A, Second Floor)

7:30 a.m. - 8:15 a.m. Catholic Mass (Frisco) & Protestant Worship (Burlington Route)

7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.: Continental Breakfast (The Marketplace)

8:30 a.m. - 10:10 a.m.: Parallel Sessions

Papers

(8:00 a.m. - 8:25 a.m.)

Revisiting Illich’s Latrogenesis: Meditations on Health as “Lived Freedom” (Texas Special)

Karol Wojtyla, Sex Reassignment Surgery, and the Body–Soul Union (Wabash Cannonball)


Religion, Worldviews, and Socialization: Medical Students’ Sense of Calling to the Medical Profession (Burlington Route)

Taoist Bioethics: Living and Dying According to the Natural Way (Missouri Pacific)

​(8:25 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.)

Halachic Approaches to the Role of Prayer in Evidence Based Medicine (Texas Special)

Is Being Present with the Suffering Enough?: A Christian Examination of Social Justice in a Pediatric BMT Unit (Wabash Cannonball)


First, Do No Harm? The Dark Side of Hippocratic Medicine (Burlington Route)

The Difference the Spirit Makes: The Body in Medicine and Christian Theology (Missouri Pacific)

(8:50 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.)

Bending or Breaking: Towards a Determination of Undue Hardship in Mental Health and Reproductive Care Among Hasidic (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews (Texas Special)

Giving Attention: Stories from the 4th Year of Medical School (Wabash Cannonball)


Bereavement: Meeting Place of Medicine and Religion (Burlington Route)

Religious Bioethics: An Emerging Framework for Pluralism in Medicine (Missouri Pacific)

Panels

(8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.)​


​Ethical Considerations at the Intersection of Psychiatry and Religion (Colorado Eagle)

Challenging Ableist Foundations of Modern Medical Practice: The Power of Liturgy (Frisco)

10:10 a.m. - 10:35 a.m.: Break

10:35 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.​: Parallel Sessions

Papers

(9:30 a.m. - 9:55 a.m.)


End-of-Life Care Perceptions and Preparations of Older LGBT Adults (Colorado Eagle)

Medicine and the Divine: How Medicine is Inherently Based on Religious Belief (Wabash Cannonball)


Hospitality and the Patient-Clinician Relationship: Comparing Models and Terminology (Burlington Route)

The Roots of Trauma-Informed Care: Love Thy Neighbor? (Frisco)

​(9:55 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.)

The Nineteenth Century Lives of Medieval Mystics in Medicine and Culture (Colorado Eagle)

Miriam's Lessons for Modern Doctors (Wabash Cannonball)


The Church as a Mental Health Resilience Factor for Veterans (Burlington Route)

Combining Islamic Spirituality with Mental Wellness in a Religiously-Integrated Curriculum for Muslims (Frisco)

(10:20 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.)

Remedy of the Physician of Souls—Healing Depression via Evagrian Prayer (Colorado Eagle)

The Problem of ‘Religion’ in Medicine: Addressing a Theology of Religions in Medicine (Wabash Cannonball)


Covenant Relationships in Antiquity: How the Early Christian Church Can Transform Healthcare Today (Burlington Route)

Spiritual Death versus Biological Death and its Aftermath in Islamic Sufism (Frisco)

Panel

(9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.)

End-of-Life Decisions in the Case of Charlie Gard: A Multi-Religious Panel (Texas Special)
​11:50 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Break
                                                              12:00 p.m. - 12:15 p.m.  Concluding Comments

                                                              Michael Balboni, Ph.D., Th.M., M.Div., Dana Farber Cancer Institute, CMR Conference Co-Chair
                                                              Jeffrey Bishop, M.D., St. Louis University, CMR Conference Co-Chair
                                                              Farr Curlin, M.D., Duke University

                                                              

*Jewish and Muslim prayer rooms will be available for use throughout the conference. 

**Schedule is subject to change