The Spirit, Giver of Life: Pneumatology and the Reenchantment of Medicine
David de la Fuente, Master of Theological Studies, Doctoral Student, Department of Theology, Fordham University
“When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you will renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30). For Jews and Christians, the world has always been enchanted precisely because it is God’s creation, and God remains active in it. Particularly, we tend to identify God’s Spirit as the energy, the presence, even the memory ever present to us who enables us to respond to our calling. If we wish to consider whether religion can help practitioners of medicine to reenchant medicine, we can find ample resources in pneumatology, the study of the person and work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit is both the “breath of life” from God and the power from God who invests believers with a calling and with various charisms, or gifts of service. Such charisms provide a sort of apparatus through which one can understand and fruitfully live one’s vocation.
Despite a resurgence of interest in pneumatology, theologians have not fully engaged medicine as a locus for pneumatological reflection. Along with this, the healing power of the Spirit as shown in the prominence of “faith healing” in Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement warrants a more nuanced treatment of the Spirit’s activity in the world. While an analysis of the phenomenon of faith healing is beyond the scope of this paper, one must admit that just as faith healing has reenchanted ordinary believers’ worldview, attention to the Spirit as giver of life can reenchant medical professionals, whom I believe are granted what should be considered the primary and typical expression of the charism of healing.
This paper seeks to illustrate how pneumatology can provide the resources to re-enchant medicine by considering how the Spirit informs and empowers our vocation as healers. I will proceed first by outlining a biblical theology of the Holy Spirit as “giver of life.” I then draw attention to the theology of charisms as gifts of service that build on one’s natural talents to make a case for practitioners to be considered as people endowed with charisms for healing. Finally, I will outline what a Spirituality of re-enchanted healthcare might look like. Seeing the Spirit at work can promote profound appreciation for holistic advances and discoveries in medicine, and can prompt practitioners to become sensitive to the unique opportunity to participate in God’s work each day by healing and caring for one’s patients. To illustrate this, I will also offer personal testimony from my previous work as a patient advocate in a major head and neck oncologic and microvascular practice, where the emphasis on quality of life and the capacity of the patient’s own body to provide the resources to preserve form and function reflect the work of the Spirit creating, sustaining, and renewing human life.
“When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you will renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30). For Jews and Christians, the world has always been enchanted precisely because it is God’s creation, and God remains active in it. Particularly, we tend to identify God’s Spirit as the energy, the presence, even the memory ever present to us who enables us to respond to our calling. If we wish to consider whether religion can help practitioners of medicine to reenchant medicine, we can find ample resources in pneumatology, the study of the person and work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit is both the “breath of life” from God and the power from God who invests believers with a calling and with various charisms, or gifts of service. Such charisms provide a sort of apparatus through which one can understand and fruitfully live one’s vocation.
Despite a resurgence of interest in pneumatology, theologians have not fully engaged medicine as a locus for pneumatological reflection. Along with this, the healing power of the Spirit as shown in the prominence of “faith healing” in Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement warrants a more nuanced treatment of the Spirit’s activity in the world. While an analysis of the phenomenon of faith healing is beyond the scope of this paper, one must admit that just as faith healing has reenchanted ordinary believers’ worldview, attention to the Spirit as giver of life can reenchant medical professionals, whom I believe are granted what should be considered the primary and typical expression of the charism of healing.
This paper seeks to illustrate how pneumatology can provide the resources to re-enchant medicine by considering how the Spirit informs and empowers our vocation as healers. I will proceed first by outlining a biblical theology of the Holy Spirit as “giver of life.” I then draw attention to the theology of charisms as gifts of service that build on one’s natural talents to make a case for practitioners to be considered as people endowed with charisms for healing. Finally, I will outline what a Spirituality of re-enchanted healthcare might look like. Seeing the Spirit at work can promote profound appreciation for holistic advances and discoveries in medicine, and can prompt practitioners to become sensitive to the unique opportunity to participate in God’s work each day by healing and caring for one’s patients. To illustrate this, I will also offer personal testimony from my previous work as a patient advocate in a major head and neck oncologic and microvascular practice, where the emphasis on quality of life and the capacity of the patient’s own body to provide the resources to preserve form and function reflect the work of the Spirit creating, sustaining, and renewing human life.