book review
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Notes on the book by Amanda Porterfield “Healing in the History of Christianity”
In this book Amanda Porterfield describes the course of the history of the healing traditions within Christian religion. In other words, she studies the history of Christianity through the prism of healing within it, and it works just right due to the fact that, as we find out, healing has always been central to the Christian faith. We are taken through the history of Christian thought and approaches starting from Jesus and ending with modern Christianity, and we see how the ideas of healing had changed within it, as, for example, the move inspired by Calvin from firm belief in the miracles of healing related to saints to the idea…
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Notes on the book by M.C.Brannigan “Cultural Faultlines in Healthcare: Reflections on Cultural Competency”
This book is meant to draw the readers’ attention to the problems of providing the sensitive care to the patients within American health care system. Brannigan describes the problems caused by the diversity of worldview and values among the patients and doctors that meet through the health care system. The differences in approaches and understandings are causing what he calls cultural faultlines, the divisive issues that cause misunderstandings and create obstacles for better care. This outstanding problem is further fuelled by the fact that the American society in general has grown a profound distrust of the healthcare. Having described the essential problem, the author proposes a solution. He believes that…
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Notes on the book “Modern and Global Ayurveda : Pluralism and Paradigms”
Modern and Global Ayurveda is a collection of papers presented at a 2004 conference convened by the Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research at the University of Cambridge edited by Dagmar Wujastyk, an independent scholar in Indology at the University of Bonn and Frederick M. Smith, Professor of Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions at the University of Iowa. This book briefly touches the history of Ayurveda and then explores in detail its development in the modern times, its coexistence with classical western medicine, the ideological differences between the “ancient” and modern ways of teaching and practice, its growth in the West and it’s new appearance back in India. In other…
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Medicine is a Humane Art: the Basic Principles of Professional Ethics in Chinese Medicine by Zhang and Cheng
This article provides a review of the history of Chinese medicine and the growth and development of medical ethics in this context. What I found especially interesting is the emphasis on the way ethics is addressed, how ethically right behaviour is promoted. We see that Chinese culture pays much attention to moral evaluation, which is expressed by the filial obedience, being respectful and nice to others independent of their social status, and in cherishing life, with appreciation of mortality. Confucius taught that everybody had an inner sense of right and wrong, which they knew by self examination, rather than by following laws and restrictions. “Benevolence is the core of Confucian…
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Notes on the article by William R. LaFleur “Body”
“Critical Terms for Religious Studies” edited by Mark C. Taylor This work is dedicated to the exploration of the relationship between religion and body. First of all, LaFleur provides a short overview on the history of this relationship. We see that while most cultured initially insisted on accepting our bodies the way they were (given to us by God), there have also been many physical alterations made to the bodies throughout history on the basis of religious belief. While Christianity has been taking pride in being the one religion that does not promote any changes in the body, it was the first one to apply the term corpses, meaning that…
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Notes on “Shattering Culture: American Medicine Responds to Cultural Diversity” by Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good (Editor) et al.
The world is changing, the people are moving, the demographics are being reshaped, especially in the US where there are so many immigrants. This book presents a collection of works that describe how are health-care institutions responding to this changing demographics, including issues within the institutional policies and the personal human dilemmas in serving the diverse and constantly changing group of patients. Although it is clear that cultural diversity often covaries with racial and ethnic classifications, we must remember that cultural diversity can exist within ethnic groups as well, and other dimensions of culture (such as those deriving from class background or education). Through various examples we are shown that…
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Notes on “Medicine, Religion and Health” by Koenig
In his book “Medicine, Religion and Health” Koenig raises several important questions about the role of spirituality in the healthcare settings. First of all, he address the problem of definition of the term spirituality. As it is shown, due to the fact that spirituality in itself is a very private matter, it can be described differently by every person. Koenig brings up several definitions of different researchers and eventually offers his own. In his opinion, spirituality should be linked to religion even though it does not necessarily imply religious belief. While there may be different opinions on the precise definition of spirituality, Koenig points out that in the clinical settings…
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The Differences Between the Dark Green Religion and Eco-theology.
In his book The Dark Green Religion: Nature, Spirituality, and Planetary Future, Bron Taylor draws a clear distinction between green religion and dark green religion. He explains that green religion is basically the environmentally friendly actions of religious people who see these actions as part of their religious obligation. This approach is based on the anthropocentric view of the world, where people believe that human beings are the most important entity in the universe. Anthropocentrism interprets or regards the world in terms of human values and experiences. Thus, any sort of environmentally friendly activities are taken in order to promote and comfort the existence of humans. Dark green religion, on the…