The book reviewed here is the third monograph by British author Neil Messer dedicated to the interdisciplinary discourse between theology and bioethics. Messer, a Cambridge trained theologian and ordained minister of the United Reformed Church, is professor of theology and presently head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Winchester, UK. While in his two earlier books Messer dealt with Selfish Genes and Christian Ethics (2007) and Respecting Life: Theology and Bioethics (2011), in this book he attempts to develop theologically sound concepts of health and disease in a well‐informed, mainly—but not exclusively—British dialogue with contemporary philosophies of health. He also dialogues with disability advocates for the sake of gaining a genuinely Christian perspective on healthcare in order to stimulate a “reflection on Christian practice” cognizant of “critical questions from other perspectives and disciplines” (p. 50) in the hope of shaping Christian healthcare accordingly.

The book consists of four clearly structured chapters: (1) philosophical accounts of health, disease, and illness (pp. 1–50), (2) disability perspectives: critical insights and questions (pp. 51–101), (3) theological resources for understanding health and disease (pp. 103–61), and (4) theological theses concerning health, disease, and illness (pp. 163–200), followed by a conclusion (pp. 201–10), a bibliography (pp. 211–26), and a general index (pp. 227–38).

Admitting that “questions about the meaning of health, disease, and illness … can at times seem arcane and abstruse” (p. 210), Messer first circumspectly plows the stony fields of health definitions and current disability perceptions. This he does, not for the sake of idle academic exercise, but with the “essentially practical [!] purpose” in mind of highlighting and making accessible a “mutually critical encounter” with theology. He offers philosophical statements on health and divergent perceptions of disability which guide actual healthcare and drive social interaction, because he is convinced that striving for a well‐informed, sound answer has “the most concrete of practical implications for healthcare and social and political life” (p. 55; see also 197–200).

However, before getting to the interdisciplinary discourse proper, Messer inserts with chapter 3 a section in which he gives an account of the sources for a Christian answer to the challenges posed by today's biomedical possibilities and the contemporary debate about disability. This is done to enable representatives of other disciplines to understand the theological argument and join in the discussion while at the same time explicitly reaffirming these sources, namely “the Scriptures and the Church's ongoing tradition of reflection on them” (p. 103). But, following Stanley Hauerwas, Messer also is keen to pay “attention to the practice of the Christian community” and its ministry of healing and caring as another “important source” (p. 107), because “Christian practice might serve to destabilize dominant perceptions of normality, health, and flourishing” (p. 151 f). Messer refers to Scripture and scriptural passages in a nonfundamentalist manner since the “final authority … is to be found in God's self‐revelation in Jesus Christ, to which the Scriptures bear witness” (p. 105). He also, besides referring to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in passing, takes recourse in Karl Barth's reflection on health as “strength for human life … to be [!] the creatures God means us to be” (p. 136, see also p. 138) and to Thomas Aquinas's “teleological account of human being and action” (p. 142) to show that human life is “directed towards both proximate and ultimate ends, which are identifiable as good [!] insofar as they contribute to the good of being this kind of creature” [!] (p. 149). His discussions of “Theologies of Disabilities” (pp. 151–61) serves as a reminder that “the ultimate fulfillment of … proper goods, goals, and ends” of human beings “is an eschatological promise” (p. 160).

Having thus laid a solid foundation for a meaningful interdisciplinary discourse, Messer now feels comfortable enough to frame “theological theses concerning health, disease, and illness” (163), sixteen in all, which culminate in two “practical implications” (pp. 197–200), namely (1) “a clear, albeit qualified, theological affirmation of the work of medicine and healing” which is resistant to “a false opposition between medicine and the Christian healing ministry” (p. 197) and (2) “the call to continue caring when cure is no longer possible” which certainly will “transform the way suffering is understood and experienced” (p. 199). In his final “Conclusion” the author briefly addresses three areas of medical ethics in which the foregoing reflections come to bear heavily—the therapy/life‐enhancement distinction, resource allocation, and the quality‐of‐life debate—inferring that when “we ask theologically [!] what we should understand by health, disease and illness, it quickly becomes apparent that our answers depend on some of the deepest of Christian convictions about human life before God and in the world God has made” (p. 210).

Messer, on the whole, articulates his complex argumentation very clearly. Yet, his writing is quite redundant, which might be owed, as the reviewer assumes, to the author's attempt to accommodate modern reading habits where books are read not in one stretch any longer, but piecemeal and with many time lapses in between diverting attention. Whatever the case may be, redundancy makes the study of books somewhat tiresome, particularly those where, as in this case, the main body of text consists in surveying “selected debates” (p. 51). This in no way diminishes the quality of Messer's work nor his innovative approach in using the Aristotelian–Thomistic concept of “flourishing” to spotlight the proper attitude toward health, disease, and disability, as well as to indicate the genuine task of medicine, healthcare, and bioethics. One only would have wished he had also considered the substantial reflection on a Christian understanding of health and healing as previously done by his fellow countryman David Jenkins and the Christian Medical Commission (CMC) of the Geneva‐based World Council of Churches (WCC).