Understanding responsibilization in healthcare

Feiler, Therese (2018): Understanding responsibilization in healthcare. Differentiations in Reformation theology. In: Theology, Vol. 121, No. 2: pp. 95-102

Abstract

The responsibilization of patients for their disease and care may imply reduced access to medical care or overly moralize the doctor–patient relationship. This article first examines Luther’s early readings of the penitential Psalms, in which he transposes the nexus between sin and disease into the sphere of faith. His subsequent emphasis on the imputation of salvation further diminishes responsibilization: medical and pastoral care become distinct. This will be contrasted with Calvin’s cathartic, forward-looking understanding of disease and with Melanchthon’s moralist merging of humanism and theology into dietetics. These theological tendencies all represent present-day options.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Keywords: Calvin; disease; Luther; Melanchthon; responsibility; theologia medicinalis
• Faculties: Protestant Theology > Institute of Systematic Theology
• Subjects: 200 Religion > 200 Religion; 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• Language: English