Souls and Secularities: A Thin Account of the Care of Souls in Contemporary Western Medicine
Benjamin Parks, PhD, Assistant Professor, General Education, Mercy College of Ohio
The common assumption in current Christian language is that “care of souls” is a soteriological and eschatological project. Different Christian denominations all have their slight but overstated differences in language and emphasis. However, the dominant concern is the same. The care of souls, both one’s own and others’, is about avoiding punishment and attaining a state of blessedness after death and in the age to come for an immaterial, immortal part of the human person that is typically conflated 1:1 with the mind. Yet, that is not the only way to think of the soul and its care that is available to Christianity.
Likewise, there is more than one way to think of “the secular.” The assumption of the call for abstracts, which reflects the assumption in much of current Christian discourse, is that secularism is disenchanted and hostile to religion and spirituality. However, secularism is not necessarily anti-religious, and disenchantment is a myth. There is space within a certain kind of secularism, indeed our own, to talk of souls (even if non-religious affiliated people use the word) and to care for them in medicine.
In this paper I will argue that given a certain understanding of the soul, secularity, and the care of souls, we can conceive of a way to care for souls in our contemporary secular western medical milieu. I will proceed in steps. First, I will offer a critical read of the conference CFA to examine the unstated assumptions about the terms in question. Then, I will consider secularity and how it is neither disenchanted or hostile to religion. After that, I will look at different understandings of the soul that are acceptable in Christianity and a non-sectarian secularism. Finally, I will propose a way of thinking about the care of souls in medicine that has a greater scope than avoiding hellfire and includes more care providers than the chaplains. This care of souls is rooted in an understanding of medicine as a technique that holds open transitional space.
Sample Bibliography
Dick, Philip K. Various works.
Harrison, John. The Territories of Science and Religion.
Josephson-Storm, Jason Ā. The Invention of Religion in Japan.
Josephson-Storm, Jason Ā. The Myth of Disenchantment.
McKenny, Gerald. To Relieve the Human Condition.
Milbank, John. Theology and Social Theory.
Noble, David. The Religion of Technology.
Stiegler, Bernard. Various works.
Webb, Heather. Dante’s Persons: An Ethic of the Transhuman.
Winnicott, Donald W. Playing and Reality.
The above are some of the major contemporary figures who will be consulted along with classical figures such as Socrates/Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Dante himself.
Likewise, there is more than one way to think of “the secular.” The assumption of the call for abstracts, which reflects the assumption in much of current Christian discourse, is that secularism is disenchanted and hostile to religion and spirituality. However, secularism is not necessarily anti-religious, and disenchantment is a myth. There is space within a certain kind of secularism, indeed our own, to talk of souls (even if non-religious affiliated people use the word) and to care for them in medicine.
In this paper I will argue that given a certain understanding of the soul, secularity, and the care of souls, we can conceive of a way to care for souls in our contemporary secular western medical milieu. I will proceed in steps. First, I will offer a critical read of the conference CFA to examine the unstated assumptions about the terms in question. Then, I will consider secularity and how it is neither disenchanted or hostile to religion. After that, I will look at different understandings of the soul that are acceptable in Christianity and a non-sectarian secularism. Finally, I will propose a way of thinking about the care of souls in medicine that has a greater scope than avoiding hellfire and includes more care providers than the chaplains. This care of souls is rooted in an understanding of medicine as a technique that holds open transitional space.
Sample Bibliography
Dick, Philip K. Various works.
Harrison, John. The Territories of Science and Religion.
Josephson-Storm, Jason Ā. The Invention of Religion in Japan.
Josephson-Storm, Jason Ā. The Myth of Disenchantment.
McKenny, Gerald. To Relieve the Human Condition.
Milbank, John. Theology and Social Theory.
Noble, David. The Religion of Technology.
Stiegler, Bernard. Various works.
Webb, Heather. Dante’s Persons: An Ethic of the Transhuman.
Winnicott, Donald W. Playing and Reality.
The above are some of the major contemporary figures who will be consulted along with classical figures such as Socrates/Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Dante himself.