How The Gospel of John Established a Model of Flourishing
Tanner Clements, MDiv, Uplift Applachia, Johnson City, TN
In John 6 Jesus is approached by large crowds who have just witnessed his miraculous feeding asking for a new sign. Jesus’ response explains that their desire is not for a Savior, but for another meal which would only satisfy them temporarily. Jesus instead urges the crowd to seek a bread that leads to a life beyond their present hunger. Later in his Gospel, John describes the kind of life that Jesus was offering as “life abundant.” The word for abundant, perissos, is translated in many ways, but always implies the idea of more. It appears that there is a discrepancy between the vision of life that the people sought and what Jesus was offering. This discrepancy seems to still be present today in the way that we seek solutions to health and societal crises.
The scope of the addiction crisis, that has been well established, continues to affect the United States, particularly in Central Appalachia. The medical, or disease, model has been the primary treatment lens through which public health officials and government organizations have defined success for treatment and, thus, allocated funding according to a now rigid standard of care, namely using medication.
The scope of this paper will be to examine the definition of success from a public health perspective and compare that to the idea of “life abundant” with goal of establishing that a Flourishing Model of recovery will provide greater returns societally than the public health approach. Rather than suggesting that the medical model should be eliminated altogether, this paper will attempt to move the goal so that success as defined from a public health perspective is now the starting point of recovery rather than the endpoint. Additionally, by aligning this model with Scripture, this paper will demonstrate why the Church would be effective in helping people struggling with addiction (people in the margins) find recovery and, through a superior message of hope, lead them beyond recovery toward flourishing.
The scope of the addiction crisis, that has been well established, continues to affect the United States, particularly in Central Appalachia. The medical, or disease, model has been the primary treatment lens through which public health officials and government organizations have defined success for treatment and, thus, allocated funding according to a now rigid standard of care, namely using medication.
The scope of this paper will be to examine the definition of success from a public health perspective and compare that to the idea of “life abundant” with goal of establishing that a Flourishing Model of recovery will provide greater returns societally than the public health approach. Rather than suggesting that the medical model should be eliminated altogether, this paper will attempt to move the goal so that success as defined from a public health perspective is now the starting point of recovery rather than the endpoint. Additionally, by aligning this model with Scripture, this paper will demonstrate why the Church would be effective in helping people struggling with addiction (people in the margins) find recovery and, through a superior message of hope, lead them beyond recovery toward flourishing.