Calling, Virtue, and the Practice of Medicine

This essay argues that an account of vocation that ties one's work with divine calling stands counter to the biblical witness of calling in the New Testament. Rather than calling to a particular profession, the biblical account of calling is to a unique way of living that is to exemplify the fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Whitt, Jason D. (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: 315-330
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
CF Christianity and Science
HC New Testament
NCH Medical ethics
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Description
Summary:This essay argues that an account of vocation that ties one's work with divine calling stands counter to the biblical witness of calling in the New Testament. Rather than calling to a particular profession, the biblical account of calling is to a unique way of living that is to exemplify the followers of Christ. Therefore, the re-enchantment of medicine is not accomplished when one makes the practice itself sacred simply by imagining it as one's divine calling. Rather, the sacredness of medicine is rooted in the character of the physician whose daily decisions and patient interactions are the outcomes of virtues inculcated in worship, prayer, Bible study, and all other practices that mark the life of faith. Thus, the practitioner avoiding burnout asks not "Am I called to be a physician?" but "How as a physician in the daily practice of medicine might I exemplify my calling to Christ-likeness?"
ISSN:1744-4195
Contains:Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbz012