Issue 101 Healthcare and Hospitals in the Mission of the Church

What's inside

Did You Know?

What the early Christians really thought about medicine and healing

The Editors

Leprosy

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a leprosy epidemic spread through Europe

The editors

Editor's note: Health care

The church was more influential in the history of healthcare than you might expect

Chris Armstrong

A New Era in Roman Healthcare

How the early church transformed the Roman Empire’s treatment of its sick

Gary B. Ferngren

Who you gonna call?

While the Romans supplicated their gods and blamed the Christians, believers ministered to their persecutors

The Editors

deaconesses

On the front lines of care in the early church

the editors

We learn not to fear death

Despite persecution and the danger of contagion, North African Christians tended plague victims

Cyprian of Carthage

Basil’s House of Healing

How a fourth-century monk pioneered the hospital

Timothy S. Miller

From poorhouse to hospital

How the Christian hospital evolved from a house of charity that cared for the poor to the medical institution we know today

Timothy S. Miller

Christian History Timeline: Healthcare and Hospitals in the Mission of the Church

From its roots in the early church to the Reformation and beyond, the Christian effort in medical philanthropy

The Editors

The hospital experience

What would it have been like to receive care in a medieval hospital?

Jennifer L. Woodruff Tait

Prescription for health

Medieval medical treatments

John Harington

The despised class

Lepers came to be seen as called by God to a life of meritorious suffering and prayer

The Editors

“Our lords the sick”

The story of the Hospitallers

Theresa M. Vann

The charitable revolution

Why did the twelfth century bring a wave of new hospitals?

Adam J. Davis, adapted by Chris R. Armstrong

Recommended resources

Dig deeper into the theme of this issue

The Editors
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