Sunday, April 24, 2022

{ UPCOMING BOOK REVIEW } To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


 

{BOOK REVIEW} PURSUING HEALTH IN AN ANXIOUS AGE BY DR, BOB CUTILLO, M.D



As I read this book, I understand Dr Bob Cutillo, the author, has differentiated health as a possession and a gift desiring to understand and analyze the practice and profession of medicine in the light of the bible narrative.

If health is a possession then like any other substantive reality health is something to have and hold such as money, cars or houses. 

If health is received as a gift as increasingly we see it then we receive it as a precious endowment. 

As the author puts forward 4 elements and looked to make sense of our basic human nature, our susceptibility to sickness, and our capacity for healing, and it is here that he turns to the Bible, to the book of origins - Genesis-to try to understand our struggles for good health and good health care in our current society. As repeatedly in the first chapter of Genesis we find the original plan where god creates "In the beginning God created...." and it is surely good from the sky to the earth, the moon to the stars, the vegetation to the creatures that depend on this vegetation for life and growth - each thing in its original form is called "good." The culmination of God's creation is us, the human being, a creature unique among all the creatures created before, because God creates for the first and only time "in his own image, in the image of God" (Gen 1:27). We are imago Dei; yet, lest we forget our humble origins, we are an image forged from the dust of the ground. 

The author for emphasizing both gift and contingency, quotes Catholic priest and philosopher Ivan Illich who writes: What we discovered was a universe of continuous creation, lying continuously in the hands of God, a universe that disappear if his hands of God, a universe that would disappear if his hands disappeared, and which is necessary only insofar as it depends on his will. Further Illich  says affirmed in the pages of Genesis, must be contemplated, cultivated in order for us to begin and remain in right understanding of ourselves. We are not here by accident or by logical necessity but as a gift of a good God, whose intention for us is to grow and develop in a good and fruitful place. 

The second element of our creation is that we are "breathing dust." In Genesis 2:7 we are told that God formed Adam from the "dust of the ground," making him a living being by "breathing into his nostrils the breath of life"; the result as Augustine described it, is terra animata, "animated earth." This understanding of human nature is helpful in two ways. First as a mixture of earthly dust and divine breath, we are "low" in our attachment to the earth, but also "high" in our attachment to God; it is somewhere between the "beasts and God" that we must try to find our place. Second, the body and the soul are in intimate attachment; not two parts temporarily glued together but a union of spirit and flesh. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in one of his early works, Creation and Fall, describes the essential unity:

Man's body is not his prison, his shell, his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather, he is body and soul.... The man who renounces his body renounces his existence before God the Creator.

A third element of our nature is that we are created not independent but in dependence, both upon the earth and in relationship with one another and God. We are placed in a garden but must till the land; this will produce the food upon which will nourish our bodies that have come from this very same earth. God also knew from the beginning that "it is not good for the man to be alone" (Gen 2:18). Dependent on intimate human relationship, Adam is given another like him, his wife, Eve, to help him and his companion as he will help her and be her companion. And then there is God, so close that they can hear the "sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Gen 3:8).

The fourth element of our creation that helps as we consider contingency and control is provision; in the garden, the goodness of God provides all that is needed for human flourishing. 

The author imagines the writers of the Old Testament and New Testament went out their way to show the continued importance of the body. It is interesting to note that hopes of this Old Testament prophet, dating back over 2,500 years, mirror our own hopes and dreams for a new society. In fact, due to many of the advances in scientific medicine, we have already significantly reduced infant mortality and premature death. These have been good things that point to what it is to come. The challenge of the resurrection is that though we continue to strive for better health and further improvements, we cannot complete the task. This should not diminish our efforts, but limit our expectations. Without recognizing those limits, we are in danger of dehumanizing the very we seek to help. This comes in many forms, one of which is the unjust distribution of limited resources, which marginalizes the poor. 

Because it is so unlike the writers of the New Testament went out of their way to show the continued importance of the body. After Jesus rose from the dead, rather than ghostlike actions to impress his followers, the most common thing he did was eat with them. On one occasion he broke bread with them at the end of the day (Luke 24:30); another time he invited them to have breakfast in the morning (John 21:12). But the first time he meets them together illustrates it best. He is suddenly among them, and they are sure they are seeing some disembodiment spirit. "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24:39). Then, in midst of their joy and amazement, he asks the most mundane question, "Do you have anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence" (Luke 24:41-43).
 
In Phil. 3:20-21 we find the most succinct summary of this truth: "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." 

This book is written from a Christian doctor's point of view, the health care system in US. 

Some questions answered by the author:

1. What are we to do with our bodies, in times of illness, vulnerability and death?

2. Why do we fragment a patient into pieces to give good medical care?

3. Why do we segregate the rich and insured from the poor and uninsured to deliver good health care?

4. What are the main faces of Health Care?

5. What should health care be ? Health as Possession or Health as Gift?

Disclosure of Material: I have received a review copy of this book by the publisher in the form of e-book. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”



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Books I Read

Book Review #Dying To Bake by Helen Golden #Cozy Mystery # Book Tour #Seventh book in A Right Royal Cozy Investigation series #Rachel's Ransom Resources

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