Responding to People in Pain with Jane Austen's Mansfield Park

Eliminating pain is problematic when it comes to caring for people with disabilities or chronic pain. This paper locates the drive to completely eliminate pain as a project of the Enlightenment and contrasts it with the tradition of interpreting suffering throughout the Christian tradition. I introd...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Christian bioethics
Subtitles:"Attending to Persons in Pain and Modern Health Care"
Main Author: Konerman-Sease, Jaime (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press 2023
In: Christian bioethics
Year: 2023, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 207-220
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
CD Christianity and Culture
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
NBE Anthropology
NCH Medical ethics
Further subjects:B Disability
B Jane Austen
B Virtue
B Chronic Pain
B Mansfield Park
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Eliminating pain is problematic when it comes to caring for people with disabilities or chronic pain. This paper locates the drive to completely eliminate pain as a project of the Enlightenment and contrasts it with the tradition of interpreting suffering throughout the Christian tradition. I introduce Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park as a way to continue the tradition of interpretative suffering after the Enlightenment. Using textual analysis of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, I demonstrate how the novel's heroine, Fanny Price, is able to resist the drive to eliminate pain through her contemplative reflection on suffering which allows her to participate in right relationships with others and God. Finally, I offer twenty-first century applications of Mansfield Park by addressing changes we can make in the church and the clinic to understand better the role pain plays in Christian life and community.
ISSN:1744-4195
Contains:Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbad018