Engelhardt: Philosophy of Difference, Theology of Unity
Jeffrey Bishop, MD, PhD, St. Louis
University
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. MD, PhD, Rice University
Ryan Nash, MD, MA, Ohio State University
Devan Stahl, PhD Candidate, St. Louis University (Moderator)
The annual conference of the Program on Religion and Medicine has created a space in which robust religious ideas are brought into conversation with medicine. This panel will emphasize the importance of maintaining robust religious content in bioethics and medicine. The panel will honor the work of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., who has argued very forcefully that robust and highly particular religious and moral traditions do not have the same moral content as secularist philosophies.
The first paper in the panel presentation will be given by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. He will show that discussions of medicine and religion often proceed as if there were one sense of medicine and one sense of religion. However, there are numerous medicines, including traditional Galenic Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and chiropractic, in addition to the now-dominant practice of medicine. As to religions, there are also many. It might simply be observed that there is not one Christianity, but numerous Christianities with diverse and incompatible accounts of church, theology, and the body. The diverse forms of medicine and religion bring into question what a dialogue regarding medicine and religion would mean and what purposes such dialogue could serve. Consider, for example, the puzzle as to what it would mean to have an ecumenical dialogue among homeopaths, hydropaths, traditional Chinese physicians, and the practitioners of the now-dominant account of medicine. All of this comes to the fore when one considers the limits and the possibilities of the body from the perspectives of medicine and religion. Orthodox Christianity, for example, is focused on sanctifying the body, a goal that is a universe of meaning apart from the contemporary dominant, non-teleological vision of biology and therefore derivatively of medicine. This brief presentation will offer grounds for puzzlement, but no conclusions.
The second paper in this panel will place Engelhardt’s paper in the larger context of his philosophical project. It will claim that like other philosophers of difference (e.g., Derrida and Foucault), Engelhardt’s philosophical project is one that takes difference seriously. From the Foundations of Bioethics, we find that Engelhardt is concerned that philosophical bioethics too quickly assumes a similitude between different religions, and between the various religiously grounded moralities and the various secular humanist philosophies, all subservient to human reason. Yet, Engelhardt claims that under reason’s reign difference is dissolved creating a false sense of commonality. This hegemonic move to bring all religions under the reign of reason does violence to the rich particularity of religious traditions.
The third paper will focus on the theological undercurrent of Engelhardt’s work. It will claim that Engelhardt can be misunderstood or misrepresented if he is only thought of as a philosopher of difference. Despite Engelhardt’s focus on historical discontinuity, this paper will point toward a kind of the theological continuity that permeates his work. In contrast to his apparent libertarian approach, this paper will demonstrate his longing for Christian monarchy. Finally, in contrast to Engelhardt’s seemingly postmodern deconstruction, which emphasizes difference, the final paper will describe his premodern construction of evangelism directed to the unity of faith.
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. MD, PhD, Rice University
Ryan Nash, MD, MA, Ohio State University
Devan Stahl, PhD Candidate, St. Louis University (Moderator)
The annual conference of the Program on Religion and Medicine has created a space in which robust religious ideas are brought into conversation with medicine. This panel will emphasize the importance of maintaining robust religious content in bioethics and medicine. The panel will honor the work of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., who has argued very forcefully that robust and highly particular religious and moral traditions do not have the same moral content as secularist philosophies.
The first paper in the panel presentation will be given by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. He will show that discussions of medicine and religion often proceed as if there were one sense of medicine and one sense of religion. However, there are numerous medicines, including traditional Galenic Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and chiropractic, in addition to the now-dominant practice of medicine. As to religions, there are also many. It might simply be observed that there is not one Christianity, but numerous Christianities with diverse and incompatible accounts of church, theology, and the body. The diverse forms of medicine and religion bring into question what a dialogue regarding medicine and religion would mean and what purposes such dialogue could serve. Consider, for example, the puzzle as to what it would mean to have an ecumenical dialogue among homeopaths, hydropaths, traditional Chinese physicians, and the practitioners of the now-dominant account of medicine. All of this comes to the fore when one considers the limits and the possibilities of the body from the perspectives of medicine and religion. Orthodox Christianity, for example, is focused on sanctifying the body, a goal that is a universe of meaning apart from the contemporary dominant, non-teleological vision of biology and therefore derivatively of medicine. This brief presentation will offer grounds for puzzlement, but no conclusions.
The second paper in this panel will place Engelhardt’s paper in the larger context of his philosophical project. It will claim that like other philosophers of difference (e.g., Derrida and Foucault), Engelhardt’s philosophical project is one that takes difference seriously. From the Foundations of Bioethics, we find that Engelhardt is concerned that philosophical bioethics too quickly assumes a similitude between different religions, and between the various religiously grounded moralities and the various secular humanist philosophies, all subservient to human reason. Yet, Engelhardt claims that under reason’s reign difference is dissolved creating a false sense of commonality. This hegemonic move to bring all religions under the reign of reason does violence to the rich particularity of religious traditions.
The third paper will focus on the theological undercurrent of Engelhardt’s work. It will claim that Engelhardt can be misunderstood or misrepresented if he is only thought of as a philosopher of difference. Despite Engelhardt’s focus on historical discontinuity, this paper will point toward a kind of the theological continuity that permeates his work. In contrast to his apparent libertarian approach, this paper will demonstrate his longing for Christian monarchy. Finally, in contrast to Engelhardt’s seemingly postmodern deconstruction, which emphasizes difference, the final paper will describe his premodern construction of evangelism directed to the unity of faith.