Beyond Re-enchantment: Christian Materialism and Modern Medicine

This article explores enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment in reference to modern medicine's view of the body. Before considering Weber's enchantment paradigm, I question some core assumptions regarding sociology as methodologically scientific and value-free. Furthermore, I draw...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Vest, Matthew (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press [2019]
In: Christian bioethics
Year: 2019, Volume: 25, Issue: 3, Pages: 266-282
IxTheo Classification:CF Christianity and Science
NCH Medical ethics
VA Philosophy
ZB Sociology
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Description
Summary:This article explores enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment in reference to modern medicine's view of the body. Before considering Weber's enchantment paradigm, I question some core assumptions regarding sociology as methodologically scientific and value-free. Furthermore, I draw on Jenkins who helps to illustrate the difficulty of rooting terms such as enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment; the question remains "which" historical and cultural period is employed as the basis for such sociological terms. Such questions are critical, but not entirely dismissive of modern medicine as "disenchanted"; with some more explicit foundational and presuppositional context, disenchantment can be a helpful notion for approaching questions of the "new body." St. Gregory Palamas' Christian materialism and mystical anthropology present such an explicit foundation. Moreover, this Patristic foundation moves past the postmodern aporia of emphasizing either immanence or transcendence—two polar attractions that factor heavily in the way modern medicine views the body.
ISSN:1744-4195
Contains:Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbz011