Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine

In our age of advanced medical technology that emphasizes health and well being, the human body has become the near-exclusive province of the professional health care industry. The solutions it proposes and the judgments it pronounces are taken as gospel. As Christians however, we are called to view all of life, including medicine, through the lens of faith. In Reclaiming the Body, a physician and a theologian take a critical look at some common assumptions and explore what theology has to say about medicine, our bodies, and our health. This is not a Christian treatise on medical ethics nor a book with a medicine-bashing agenda. Rather, Reclaiming the Body invites the reader to a theological and ecclesiological reflection on both the human body and the Christian body in an effort to reframe the relationship between Christian faith and medicine. Along the way, the authors discuss contemporary issues such as what it means to fully care for the sick, children and reproductive technologies, medicine and the poor, and our obsession with and pursuit of physical perfection. Featured in softcover with 176 pages from Brazos Press.

Shuman, an ethicist, and Volck, a pediatrician, are on a mission to persuade Christians to stop worshiping the medical establishment and to start "using medicine as if God mattered." It is easy to put medicine in the place that only God should occupy: "The medical project of controlling life and defeating death is attractive... because a denial of our own mortalities and a desire to be in control is very near the center of our own disordered desires." Christian theology, however, teaches that "because we come from God, belong to God, and are destined finally to return to God, we need not fight without restraint to control all the circumstances of our existence, or to preserve our lives as they near their end." As they develop this theme through literature, contemporary stories and theological reflection, the authors affirm the goodness of the human body, the importance of the church as the gathered body of Christ and the necessity of hospitality toward the world's helpless and suffering. Brilliantly reasoned and artfully written, this quotable book should reach well beyond its obvious market of medical and spiritual caregivers to engage anyone concerned about human values in a technological age. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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