Back to the Future: A Feminist Revision of the History of Medicine and Christianity
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Hulford, DMin, BCC. Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, Lemont, Illinois. Healthcare and Mental Health Chaplain. Dr. Tina Decker, RN, DNP. Professor of Nursing, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Illinois. Alyssa Foll, MA. AMITA Health, La Grange, Illinois. Healthcare Chaplain. (Moderator)
What if Tertullian, an early church father, had never said, “Woman, you are the gate to hell”?
What if Thomas Aquinas, the great philosopher and doctor of the Church, had never said, “woman is defective and misbegotten”?
What if Martin Luther, Protestant Reformer, had never said, “Let [women] die in childbirth. It is why they are there”?
If time could be turned back and misogyny erased from the pages of Christianity, would it have made a difference medical treatment for women throughout the centuries? With medicine and religion having been inextricably intertwined for most of human history, would fewer women have died in childbirth or from postpartum complications if sacred texts did not name “pain in childbirth” as a curse to all women? Would “witches” have been spared bodily torture if women had not been labelled as the “horned devil”?
It may be tempting to dismiss these dictums as artifacts from less-enlightened eras, but misogyny still infects the practices of medicine and religion today. Consider the discrepancies in pain management in treating both sexes: women routinely wait longer in Emergency Departments for pain medication, are prescribed more sedatives, rather than pain medication, and have their pain dismissed outright at a rate far higher than their male counterparts. Could those discrepancies have their roots in this timeworn sentiment, written by St. Albertus Magnus in the 12th century, “What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions”? Furthermore, women comprise 70% of all chronic pain sufferers and yet, 80% of all pain studies are conducted on men. Is that because women are “defective and misbegotten” — an aberration from the male standard?
One of the guiding questions for the 2020 Conference on Medicine and Religion—True to Tradition—asks, “what aspects of the medicine of the past should ground the medicine of the future.” This panel answers that question and asserts that the religious-and-medical practices of the past are in dire need of a feminist revision if they are to ground the medicine of the future. To that end, the first panelist, a healthcare chaplain trained in systematic theology, will bring forward overlooked or forgotten theological resources from the Christian tradition that uplift women and celebrate female personhood. The panelist will draw from examples from Hebrew Scripture, the New Testament, and female theologians to highlight other sources that can and should become normative for the medicine of the future. The second panelist is a doctorate-educated professor of nursing who will examine current research around feminist best-practices in medical care. Lastly, the third panelist, a board-certified healthcare chaplain who works with women at a mental health treatment center, will present chaplaincy practices that encapsulate both the theological resources and medical best practices.
Medicine of the future does not need to hold to the misogyny of medicine of the past and present. There are alternate sources that can ground and inform the medical practices and care for all human beings, if only we are willing to revisit and revise the past.
What if Thomas Aquinas, the great philosopher and doctor of the Church, had never said, “woman is defective and misbegotten”?
What if Martin Luther, Protestant Reformer, had never said, “Let [women] die in childbirth. It is why they are there”?
If time could be turned back and misogyny erased from the pages of Christianity, would it have made a difference medical treatment for women throughout the centuries? With medicine and religion having been inextricably intertwined for most of human history, would fewer women have died in childbirth or from postpartum complications if sacred texts did not name “pain in childbirth” as a curse to all women? Would “witches” have been spared bodily torture if women had not been labelled as the “horned devil”?
It may be tempting to dismiss these dictums as artifacts from less-enlightened eras, but misogyny still infects the practices of medicine and religion today. Consider the discrepancies in pain management in treating both sexes: women routinely wait longer in Emergency Departments for pain medication, are prescribed more sedatives, rather than pain medication, and have their pain dismissed outright at a rate far higher than their male counterparts. Could those discrepancies have their roots in this timeworn sentiment, written by St. Albertus Magnus in the 12th century, “What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions”? Furthermore, women comprise 70% of all chronic pain sufferers and yet, 80% of all pain studies are conducted on men. Is that because women are “defective and misbegotten” — an aberration from the male standard?
One of the guiding questions for the 2020 Conference on Medicine and Religion—True to Tradition—asks, “what aspects of the medicine of the past should ground the medicine of the future.” This panel answers that question and asserts that the religious-and-medical practices of the past are in dire need of a feminist revision if they are to ground the medicine of the future. To that end, the first panelist, a healthcare chaplain trained in systematic theology, will bring forward overlooked or forgotten theological resources from the Christian tradition that uplift women and celebrate female personhood. The panelist will draw from examples from Hebrew Scripture, the New Testament, and female theologians to highlight other sources that can and should become normative for the medicine of the future. The second panelist is a doctorate-educated professor of nursing who will examine current research around feminist best-practices in medical care. Lastly, the third panelist, a board-certified healthcare chaplain who works with women at a mental health treatment center, will present chaplaincy practices that encapsulate both the theological resources and medical best practices.
Medicine of the future does not need to hold to the misogyny of medicine of the past and present. There are alternate sources that can ground and inform the medical practices and care for all human beings, if only we are willing to revisit and revise the past.