Being a doctor and going to the doctor are theological issues. A major thesis of the book is that a de-medicalization of physicians is necessary and should be replaced by a Scripto-centric approach to life in the practice of medicine. This call is radical, humanly speaking, but we have a God Who has given much to us as Christian physicians and expects much of us. There is a biblical view of the practice of medicine, and it is the major avenue that patients have for reaching true comfort and help. Each physician must be able to articulate it and the book is written for that purpose. A rightly understood biblical view of medicine is the only way that doctors have for giving genuine hope to hurting people and for the advancement of God s kingdom.

How do certain medical conditions impact counseling needs? Dr. Charles Hodges and a team of contributing physicians set out to answer some of those questions and offer solid biblical principles for counseling those with medical issues.

Christian health care professionals in our secular and pluralistic society often face uncertainty about the place religious faith holds in today's medical practice. Through an examination of a virtue-based ethics, this book proposes a theological view of medical ethics that helps the Christian physician reconcile faith, reason, and professional duty. Edmund D. Pellegrino and David C. Thomasma trace the history of virtue in moral thought, and they examine current debate about a virtue ethic's place in contemporary bioethics. Their proposal balances theological ethics, based on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with contemporary medical ethics, based on the principles of beneficence, justice, and autonomy. The result is a theory of clinical ethics that centers on the virtue of charity and is manifest in practical moral decisions. Using Christian bioethical principles, the authors address today's divisive issues in medicine. For health care providers and all those involved in the fields of ethics and religion, this volume shows how faith and reason can combine to create the best possible healing relationship between health care professional and patient.

Everybody has hope in some form; but everybody needs true hope. Hope is universal and necessary for living well. Too often, people, including believers, function as if circumstances, feelings, and others control them. For the believer, biblical truth steps in and clarifies and simplifies living faithfully and hopefully. The Bible defines and offers true hope which never fails or disappoints. It is to the Bible that we must go. When we do we find God’s truth exploding across the pages of Scripture. Scripture defines true hope and contrasts and compares it to false hope. The believer will embrace these truths as a matter of life and death! Out of the Maze: A Covenantal View of Hope is designed to help you differentiate true and false hope, thus enabling you to live as a victor now and eternally.

People with bad feelings and feeling-directed behavior—anger, fear, worry, depression—usually are given a psychiatric label. Initially, I was comfortable with that approach, but I have come to realize that people must be evaluated based on a proper understanding of the Bible. When that happens the whole person (thinking, wanting, and doing) will be considered—not just outward behavior and feelings. Feelings, their generation and the person’s response to them, will not be the major criteria for some label or the target for treatment, medical and otherwise. Rather, thinking and wanting that leads to bad feelings will be the target of the Christian helper—friend, pastor, counselor, and physician. Thinking, wanting, and doing—thereby feelings, will be evaluated using the filter of biblical truth. The truth sets people free as they apply it to their situation with the goal of pleasing God. Biblically-controlled thinking and wanting will replace sinful thoughts and desires. Biblically-controlled actions will follow. Turning the patient to the root and heart of the issue—his thinking and wanting and his relationship with Christ—is the first step in helping the person get victory in his problems, not necessarily out of them. Victory, God’s way, won’t come until we view all feeling states, and man, from a biblical perspective.

In today’s society, healing and doctors’ visits are centered around a “self” and “me” attitude. As Christians, in spite of an illness or condition, we should approach medical care with a Christian attitude. Dr. Jim Halla shows readers how to be a God-pleasing patient and how to have a mindset that centers on God.

Drawing on New Testament studies and recent scholarship on the expansion of the Christian church, Gary B. Ferngren presents a comprehensive historical account of medicine and medical philanthropy in the first five centuries of the Christian era. Ferngren first describes how early Christians understood disease. He examines the relationship of early Christian medicine to the natural and supernatural modes of healing found in the Bible. Despite biblical accounts of demonic possession and miraculous healing, Ferngren argues that early Christians generally accepted naturalistic assumptions about disease and cared for the sick with medical knowledge gleaned from the Greeks and Romans. Ferngren also explores the origins of medical philanthropy in the early Christian church. Rather than viewing illness as punishment for sins, early Christians believed that the sick deserved both medical assistance and compassion. Even as they were being persecuted, Christians cared for the sick within and outside of their community. Their long experience in medical charity led to the creation of the first hospitals, a singular Christian contribution to health care. "A succinct, thoughtful, well-written, and carefully argued assessment of Christian involvement with medical matters in the first five centuries of the common era . . . It is to Ferngren's credit that he has opened questions and explored them so astutely. This fine work looks forward as well as backward; it invites fuller reflection of the many senses in which medicine and religion intersect and merits wide readership."—Journal of the American Medical Association "In this superb work of historical and conceptual scholarship, Ferngren unfolds for the reader a cultural milieu of healing practices during the early centuries of Christianity."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith "Readable and widely researched . . . an important book for mission studies and American Catholic movements, the book posits the question of what can take its place in today's challenging religious culture."—Missiology: An International Review Gary B. Ferngren is a professor of history at Oregon State University and a professor of the history of medicine at First Moscow State Medical University. He is the author of Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction and the editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction.

[255 pages] Please note: This is the Second Edition of the book. Third Editions are now available in two separate books, one on Spiritual Warfare Principles and another on Christian Deliverance Principles. Third editions are extensively revised and updated versions - due to reader recommendations on additional content. To go to the third editions please click on the author's name above or click on the appropriate book title link above (depending on which page you're on).