Medicine And Religion In Enlightenment Europe (the History Of Medicine In Context)
by Andrew Cunningham /
2007 / English / PDF
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The Enlightenment period, here understood as covering the years
1650 to 1789, is usually considered to be a period when religion
was obliged to give way to rationality. With respect to medicine
this means that the religious elements in the treatment and
interpretation of diseases to all intents and purposes disappeared.
However, there are growing indications in recent scholarship that
this may well be an overstatement. Indeed it appears that religion
retained many of its customary relations with medicine. This volume
explores how far, and the ways in which, this was still the case.
It looks at this multi-faceted relationship with respect to among
others: medical care and death in hospitals, religious vocation and
nursing, chemical medicine and religion, the clergy and medicine,
the continued significance of popular medicine, faith healing,
dissection and religion, and religious dissent and medical
innovation. Within these significant areas the volume provides a
European perspective which will make it possible to draw
comparisons and determine differences.
The Enlightenment period, here understood as covering the years
1650 to 1789, is usually considered to be a period when religion
was obliged to give way to rationality. With respect to medicine
this means that the religious elements in the treatment and
interpretation of diseases to all intents and purposes disappeared.
However, there are growing indications in recent scholarship that
this may well be an overstatement. Indeed it appears that religion
retained many of its customary relations with medicine. This volume
explores how far, and the ways in which, this was still the case.
It looks at this multi-faceted relationship with respect to among
others: medical care and death in hospitals, religious vocation and
nursing, chemical medicine and religion, the clergy and medicine,
the continued significance of popular medicine, faith healing,
dissection and religion, and religious dissent and medical
innovation. Within these significant areas the volume provides a
European perspective which will make it possible to draw
comparisons and determine differences.