[Valin]

Bump for a later read.

[HoweverComma]

Excellent read.

[SCARED]

so lets see if i understand...uncountable billions of beings have had to suffer illness and death(and the attendant terror) because of 'ORIGONAL SIN...that is... because adam ate an apple, GOD placed this onus on man. hell of a guy this GOD!

[RnMomof7]

The root problem is a fundamental fear of death. Disease is simply a stage on the road to that death introduced by original sin. So man must come to terms with his own death.

If you have assurence of where you are "going" when you die there is no fear..

When I worked with the dying those that knew Christ went "home" in peace.Those that were not sure cried out in fear..

[JenB]

Interesting piece; I have only one comment. It denegrates herbal medicine at the same time it talks about new age-y stuff. What does the author think people used before antibiotics and such? Herbs, right? Does that mean *everyone* born before whenever penicillin became readily available is doomed to hell?

I don't mean to criticize, it just raised a point in my mind that nobody here seems to have addressed.

[Aquinasfan]

Granted, St. Thomas Aquinas dealt with theology and philosophy. Yet it was Thomistic thought, the rational, reasoned examination of concepts and ideas, from which grew the methods of scientific investigation and by which was discovered the evidence upon which modern western medicine and science is based. The Church was the incubator of the scientific process, and its universities were the seed from which has grown Western scientific thought.

I gotta subscribe to the Wanderer. Great article. Very insightful.

[Aquinasfan]

Have you read Stanley Jaki's book, "Science and Creation"? Jaki contends that Newtonian physics arose soon after the Church's promulgation of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. He makes a very strong case.

[lockeliberty]

Brian, nice post.

Although I think you over emphasize the accomplishments of Thomist thought I will agree that Thomism contributed quite significantly to the development of western culture. Aquinas, as most of the early church fathers did, relied heavily on Greek thought. Aquinas in particular relied on Aristotelian cause and effect theory. Thomist thought mimics Greek thought in it's dualist nature of reality (nature/grace), with nature as a lower form and grace as a higher order. Nature, despite sin, was viewed as still basically good; but grace was better. This viewpoint allowed for rational thought(nature) as the starting point in man's understanding of God. Many Theologians consider Thomism as advocating an "incomplete fall". Within the arsenal of Thomist thought, therefore, philosophy engage in theoretical reflection on natural things. The effect was a theology supported by a form of natural theology and not reliant on God's revelations. The result was a meaningful contact with the down to earth life of God's people in his world was severed.

The enlightment era further exacerbated the dualist structure and pushed God further away especially in the context of the Kantian dilemma. (Either God is in our world of experience, but then he is not God; or he is God, but not in our world of experience.) The result was that either God did not exist or God could not be quantified; in which in either circumstance God was irrelevant.

Now, let us try and tie up the philosophy with your post. On the one hand you admit to the shortfalls of modern medicine's lack of understanding the revelation of God concerning judgement.

The failure of Western medicine today is that in its absolute pursuit of human knowledge, it has forgotten the fact of the immortal soul and the effects of Original Sin. It has so formalized itself that the patient has become a case number to be "objectively" evaluated, probed, prodded, sliced, medicated, and placated. Killing unborn babies, to use their cells to cure the current living case number, is the perfect example of the pit into which western medicine has fallen.

Yet a few paragraphs later you criticize the pagan religons for taking a spiritualistic view.

For all its failings, western medicine attempts to treat the body using rational scientific concepts. Alternative medicine largely refrains from making any such claims. Instead, remedies are couched in terms of balancing the "powers" within the body, or opening energy channels, or bringing "harmony" within.

While I do not agree with the pagan religons vehicles or emphasis on strictly a spiritual healing; your criticism shows a tension laden dialectic. Your Thomist rational approach only touches on the grace aspect of healing and is heavily inbalanced on the nature aspect of healing.

As we come out of our enlightment "hang-over" our civilization is realizing that healing is not merely a rational scientific humanist solution. As Christians it is our responsibility to emphasize a holistic approach to healing; spirit, mind, and body. The pagan religons approach is partially correct in that we must be bringing "harmony" within. The problem, of course, is that they seek the wrong god. Christian scientists and doctors must also take a holistic approach to their work incorporating not only the rational but also the bringing "harmony" within revelational aspects to their studies. The point of origin is the Word of God.