Time In The Clinical Context: How Monastic Hospitals Re-inform The Clock
Brian Engelhardt, MA Duke Divinity School, BS Baylor University
In Western medicine, the clock has been abstracted from its once deeply tied religious origins. An Enlightenment ethos prioritizing efficiency and production renders the clock subservient to these same ends. In a society constantly “racing the clock”, time is construed as a commodity to conquer and control. Not only do the elderly, disabled, and other populations who “cannot keep up” experience profound marginalization, but also a clinical obsession with productivity and speed deeply eschews the important work of attending to nuanced patient narratives. Generally, these trends have made it easy to decentralize the primary ends of medicine (e.g. health and service) in the practitioner’s daily work.
I begin by examining the origin of the mechanical clock within Early Medieval Benedictine monasteries. The regular chimes provided signals and structure to faithful lives of “ora et labora” (prayer and labor). Many of Europe’s first hospitals evolved under such monastic umbrellas, where nuns, monks, clergy, and lay members cared for the poor and the ill. I will explore this context of care, where regular liturgy, prayer, and partaking of the sacraments were ordered by the clock and coupled with herbal medicines, relics, and icons. The physical and the spiritual were deeply congruous in this “enchanted world.” The monastic hospital setting may reinform a theological conception of time as gift and help us imagine the clock as ordered within a proper teleology in medical settings.
After this historical analysis, I will additionally reflect upon my experiences at Reality Ministries (in Durham, North Carolina) as an alternative community particularly structured around those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and resonant with aspects of monasticism. With help from practical theologian John Swinton, I will consider how persons with intellectual, developmental, and neurological disabilities may experience time not as linear, progressive, nor productive, but as being redeemed in Christ and as an opportunity for gentle, loving, and “timefull” engagement with patients.
In Western medicine, the clock has been abstracted from its once deeply tied religious origins. An Enlightenment ethos prioritizing efficiency and production renders the clock subservient to these same ends. In a society constantly “racing the clock”, time is construed as a commodity to conquer and control. Not only do the elderly, disabled, and other populations who “cannot keep up” experience profound marginalization, but also a clinical obsession with productivity and speed deeply eschews the important work of attending to nuanced patient narratives. Generally, these trends have made it easy to decentralize the primary ends of medicine (e.g. health and service) in the practitioner’s daily work.
I begin by examining the origin of the mechanical clock within Early Medieval Benedictine monasteries. The regular chimes provided signals and structure to faithful lives of “ora et labora” (prayer and labor). Many of Europe’s first hospitals evolved under such monastic umbrellas, where nuns, monks, clergy, and lay members cared for the poor and the ill. I will explore this context of care, where regular liturgy, prayer, and partaking of the sacraments were ordered by the clock and coupled with herbal medicines, relics, and icons. The physical and the spiritual were deeply congruous in this “enchanted world.” The monastic hospital setting may reinform a theological conception of time as gift and help us imagine the clock as ordered within a proper teleology in medical settings.
After this historical analysis, I will additionally reflect upon my experiences at Reality Ministries (in Durham, North Carolina) as an alternative community particularly structured around those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and resonant with aspects of monasticism. With help from practical theologian John Swinton, I will consider how persons with intellectual, developmental, and neurological disabilities may experience time not as linear, progressive, nor productive, but as being redeemed in Christ and as an opportunity for gentle, loving, and “timefull” engagement with patients.