The Necessity for a Theology of Disease: Reflections on Totalities and Fragments

Philip Hefner; Philip Hefner

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.2004.00592.x

Research Articles
The Necessity for a Theology of Disease: Reflections on Totalities and Fragments

Abstract

Abstract. Our ideas of disease try to explain it, and they aim at facilitating cures. In the process, they become entwined in sociocultural networks that have totalizing effects. Disease, however, counters this totalizing effect by revealing to us that our lives are fragments. Unless we engage this fragment character of disease and of our lives, we cannot properly understand disease or deal with it. HIV/AIDS clarifies these issues in an extraordinarily powerful fashion. Medical, legal, commercial, political, and institutional approaches to disease overlook the fragment character of disease in favor of totalizing world‐ views. A theology of disease is necessary in order to maintain the focus on fragments. Unless we recognize this fragment character, we do not really understand our lives, and we do not really understand either disease or healing.

Keywords

medicalizing, Robert Potter, HIV/AIDS, disease, totalizing, Ann Pederson, fragment

How to Cite

Hefner, P., (2004) “The Necessity for a Theology of Disease: Reflections on Totalities and Fragments”, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 39(2), 487–496. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2004.00592.x

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References

Engelhardt, H. TristramJr. 1996. The Foundations of Bioethics. 2d ed. New York : Oxford Univ. Press.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 2001. “Health, Healing, and Health Care: First Draft of a Social Statement .”www.elca.org/healthcare.statement.html.

Haraway, Donna. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature . New York : Routledge.

Haraway, Donna. 1997. Modest Witness/Second Millennium: Feminism and Technoscience. New York : Routledge.

Koenig, Harold, MichaelMcCullough, and DavidLarson, eds. 2001. Handbook of Religion and Health. New York : Oxford Univ. Press.

Kundera, Milan. 1991. Immortality. New York : HarperCollins.

Pederson, Ann. Forthcoming. Created Co‐Creator and Issues of Medical Ethics. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science .

Potter, Robert Lyman. 1991. “Current Trends in the Philosophy of Medicine. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 26 (June): 259–76.

Williams, Terry Tempest. 1991. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. New York : Random House, Vintage Books.

Authors

Philip Hefner (Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science)

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Issue

Volume 39 • Issue 2 • June 2004

Publication details

Pages	487–496

Dates

Published	2004-06-02

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2004.00592.x

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