The Church in Sickness and in Health

Methuen, C. and Spicer, A. (Eds.) (2022) The Church in Sickness and in Health. Series: Studies in church history. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9781009284806

Abstract

Following the postponement of its 2020 summer conference due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ecclesiastical History Society invited articles for this fifty-eighth volume of Studies in Church History, The Church in Sickness and in Health. The volume reflects the way that, from the earliest times, the Church has cared for the sick and the health of society in both physical and spiritual senses. Anointing and praying for the sick has always been combined with medical care for the afflicted. The intercession of the Virgin Mary, St Roch and St Sebastian, for example, was sought to protect the faithful from plague, while further saints offered hope against other diseases. Religious foundations such as leper and plague hospitals cared for the diseased but also isolated them to protect the health of society. The institutionalization of the Church’s care for the sick led to the foundation of hospitals and medical schools. Leading London hospitals, such as Bart’s and St Thomas’s, developed from medieval monastic foundations; today the Roman Catholic Church is globally the largest non-governmental provider of healthcare. Many of these articles focus on the Church’s response to sickness, and specifically to the experience of pandemics down the ages. Others explore the connection between the Church and the medical profession, and by implication the relationships between spiritual and physical approaches to sickness. They consider the clerical experience of sickness, and its impact on ministry, preaching and understandings of God. Finally, they show some of the ways that sickness has served as a metaphor for understanding the Church and its relationship to the world.

• Item Type: Edited Books
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Methuen, Professor Charlotte
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D051 Ancient History; D History General and Old World > D History (General); D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History; D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History; D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D901 Europe (General)
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Theology and Religious Studies
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISBN: 9781009284806