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American Medicine as Religious Practice: Care of the Sick as a Sacred Obligation and the Unholy Descent into Secularization

Journal of Religion and Health volume 50, pages 62–74 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Modern medicine serves a religious function for modern Americans as a conduit through which science can be applied directly to the human body. The first half of this paper will focus on the theoretical foundations for viewing medicine as a religious practice arguing that just as a hierarchical structured authoritarian church historically mediated access to God, contemporary Western medicine provides a conduit by which the universalizable truths of science can be applied to the human being thereby functioning as a new established religion. I will then illustrate the many parallels between medicine and religion through an analysis of rituals and symbols surrounding and embedded within the modern practice of medicine. This analysis will pay special attention to the primacy placed on secret interior knowledge of the human body. I will end by responding to the hope for a “secularization of American medicine,” exploring some of the negative consequences of secularization, and arguing that, rather than seeking to secularize, American medicine should strive to use its religious features to offer hope and healing to the sick, in keeping with its historically religious legacy.

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Notes

  1. MacIntyre’s virtue ethics are particularly applicable to medicine conceived of as a practice with internal goods.

  2. The fervor surrounding the creation versus evolution debate points to its religious significance for both sides. The intensity of the debate reveals not only the Fundamentalist religious principles of some Christian groups, but also the religious nature of science in our society. Even the common phrase “I believe in evolution,” rather than “I am convinced of evolution,” suggests a sort of religious or quasi-religious faith in the theory. The recent Jesus fish versus Darwin fish battle that was recently waged on bumpers across America jokingly highlights the religious nature of the debate. My own personal attachment to evolution is quite fervent despite a rather cursory understanding of the science supporting it. This flies in the face of my characteristically skeptical personality and leads me to suspect that there is more at stake for me in the evolution debate than the empiric validity of the claims. It is my belief that evolution is dear to us as a myth of origin for our scientific culture.

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  1. The Institute for Medical Humanities, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, 1019 Ball, Galveston, TX, 77550, USA

    Margaret P. Wardlaw

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  1. Margaret P. Wardlaw
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Correspondence to Margaret P. Wardlaw.

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Wardlaw, M.P. American Medicine as Religious Practice: Care of the Sick as a Sacred Obligation and the Unholy Descent into Secularization. J Relig Health 50, 62–74 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-010-9320-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-010-9320-4

Keywords

  • Religion
  • Biomedicine
  • Symbolic meaning
  • Enlightenment