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Mainline Protestant Views of Personal and
Social Health
By Aaron K. Ketchell
The Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) Tradition Conclusion
Since their inception during the Reformation of the sixteenth century,
Protestant traditions commonly referred to as “mainline” have devoted much thought
and energy to issues of health. Even though there are important historical
and contemporary distinctions between mainline Protestant denominations, it
is possible to identify a number of shared theological and social vantages.
. Theologically, mainline Protestants
visualize God as parent, lover, and healer, whereas their conservative counterparts
frequently represent God as father and lawgiver.
Mainline Protestants do not emphasize the existence of evil as an embodied
entity (i.e. Satan) active in the world. They uphold Christ’s ability
to offer redemption from sin to all believers.
Unlike conservatives who often profess an inerrant stance toward scripture,
these adherents view the Bible as created by fallible human beings under divine
inspiration in particular historical and cultural contexts. However, scripture
is still regarded as a divinely inspired guide for living and one’s quest for
salvation.
In the realm of social
ethics, liberal Protestants have historically placed greater emphasis upon community
action rather than evangelization. Instead
of a world-rejecting premillennialist view held by many conservatives--one that
sees humanity as increasingly depraved and a cataclysmic apocalypse as immanent--they
have opted for an optimistic postmillennialism that offers the opportunity for
social betterment in anticipation of Christ’s Second Coming.
This viewpoint has led mainline advocates to welcome modern scientific
advancements (such as evolutionary theory), to ally themselves with those who
view the earth as billions rather than thousands of years old, and to promote
an alliance between the Bible, tradition, and science as the primary sources
for social policies and beliefs.
This accentuation of
community by mainline Protestants has led to a number of societal programs.
For example, the Social Gospel Movement of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth-centuries brought together a wide array of liberal Protestants to
combat newly burgeoned problems related to industrialization and urbanization.
Furthermore, within the past thirty years mainline Protestant traditions
like the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of
Christ, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) have become more open to the ordination
of women, the presence of gay and lesbian people within congregations, and dialogue
concerning abortion and genetic manipulation.
Mainline Protestant denominations have typically opposed slavery, racial
segregation, oppressive patriarchal household relations, capital punishment,
and public school prayer.
The discussion
of mainline Protestant views of health offered below includes studies of the
Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Disciples traditions.
Methodism is addressed in a separate essay. These faith groups
by no means represent all that could be included in the mainline fold. Instead,
this is a selection of some of the larger denominations. Other traditions
that identify as mainline or liberal and offer a holistic vision of health would
include the American Baptist Churches, the Church of the Brethren, the Friends
United Meeting, and many others too numerous to detail in this brief essay.
A notion of strong individualism
spawned from the Reformation continues to influence the ways that mainline Protestants
view health. Martin Luther and other
reformers stressed ideas of individual responsibility and discipline that surface
in all the considerations of health mentioned below. They suggested that each person could cultivate
an unmediated relationship with the divine and thus play a vital role in his
or her own salvation. Although reformers such as John Calvin and John
Wesley often emphasized the necessity of physical regimens meant to purify one’s
body as “temple of the Holy Spirit,” the cultivation of mental well-being has
always been important within mainline groups. Health concerns have also been integrally linked to the social realm
and conceived of as inherently communal. This is reflected in the dual
role of clergy-physician practiced by many ministers; the founding of hospitals,
orphanages, and mission societies; and coalitions with modern science and political
establishments that have sought to alleviate poverty, hunger, abuse, or injustice.
Finally, all mainline traditions have historically exhibited a concern
for spiritual health, claiming that despite the individualistic stance of Protestantism,
devotees require support from a spiritual community if individual piety is to
become fully manifest.
As with other essays, the discussions
of mainline traditions offered below divide health and well-being concerns into
four separate domains: physical, mental, social, and spiritual.
However, the historically holistic approach among such groups often makes
these distinctions somewhat arbitrary. As
will be seen, both historical and contemporary mainline Protestants have sought
to integrate these various health arenas. Thus,
categories frequently overlap and intermingle within presentations of individual
traditions. By calling for a unification
of physical, mental, social, and spiritual perspectives, mainline Protestant
adherents have voiced the necessity of harmonizing these categories in a multiplicity
of ways since the early sixteenth century.
These bodies have always held that health and wellness is more than the
mere absence of physical disease. In
contemporary times, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Disciples traditions continue
to emphasize the mutuality of all domains of health and to actively work toward
well-being at the personal, congregational, and societal levels.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) instituted the Protestant Reformation in 1517 to transform a Christian tradition he thought was mired in an emphasis upon works rather than a quest for grace. He rebutted the Roman Catholic position that salvation was contingent upon a person’s good deeds. Luther asserted that deliverance was solely the work of God and a product of lives situated within an ongoing struggle between faith and doubt or wellness and illness. He placed forgiveness of sin outside the realm of human acts. He emphasized life and health as divine gifts offering the possibility of healing to those able to manifest appropriate piety. As one who suffered myriad illnesses during his lifetime and witnessed much suffering and religious persecution, Luther urged his followers to exhibit trust in God and belief in a redemptive plan--not in order to escape affliction but rather to place it (as with all things) in the hands of the divine (Lindberg, 1986, pp. 173-176).
Physical
Health
Although individualism is often put forth as the hallmark of the Reformation,
Luther’s emphasis upon personal ethics and the vocation of serving each neighbor
as a “little Christ” broadened his movement’s purview to include a concern for
community-wide physical health. He believed
that Christians were responsible for not only alleviating suffering but also
for preventing it. He supported the establishment of public welfare institutions
such as hospitals while advocating for health care and sanitation education.
Through his theology, he helped facilitate a “paradigm shift” in the
world of medieval science founded upon induction and experience. He emphasized the integral link between this
world and the divine. He believed that a “calling” (divinely-ordained
occupation) gave godly sanction to practices of science and medicine grounded
in nature. By broadening the definition of a “vocation”
to include more than the narrow confines of the priesthood, Luther argued that
all areas of life could be imbued with a theological-ethical dimension (Lindberg,
1986, pp. 176-183).
In the contemporary United States,
Luther's theology of unselfish love and its manifestation in life have been
primarily exhibited by the establishment of hospitals. To address the
needs of Lutheran immigrants, the church opened its first American hospital
in Pittsburgh in 1849. By 1960, Lutherans joined Methodists as the leading
Protestant providers of institutionalized health care in the country (Muelder,
1961, pp. 308-311). However, by this juncture immigrant communities had
largely assimilated and so these institutions adopted a more ecumenical orientation.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), like all mainline Protestant
denominations, positions physical health within a larger holistic vision. In
a 2001 publication, the ELCA called for health care providers to: view
each individual as unique instead of as "a set of symptoms or diagnoses";
offer "culturally competent" services; take seriously the needs and
desires of "those without power in society"; and employ technology
without viewing it as an "end in itself." Although these dictates
place great responsibility upon those who practice medicine and provide health
care, this statement concluded that physical health begins with individuals
who appreciate "the wonderful gift of life" and are willing to serve
as stewards of that gift. This stewardship can be personally enacted through
simple practices such as eating sensibly, exercising regularly, getting good
sleep, avoiding tobacco, using alcohol sparingly, and seeking the counsel of
doctors when necessary (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2001, pp. 26-29).
Mental
Health back
to subheading
Although Luther respected his sixteenth-century medical establishment
and its ability to treat external illness, he also felt that sickness was not
merely the product of physical causes. As
he wrote, “Our physical health depends in large measure on the thoughts of our
minds. This in accord with the saying,
‘Good cheer is half the battle’” (Tappert, 1955, p. 17). His theology
of human nature was underscored by a view that both body and soul are unconditionally
accepted by God. The essential basis for well-being is seeking justification
by grace alone. While one could never
fully overcome sinfulness, he or she must nevertheless remain “healthy in hope”
by remembering that God offers salvation to even the worst of sinners (Lehmann
& Pelikan, 1955, p. 260). Luther
embraced the scientific advancements of the burgeoning Enlightenment and thus
promoted a close working relationship between doctor and pastor.
By rejecting the notion that disease equaled divine punishment, he marked
life as an ongoing struggle in which an individual combats pain first through
faith and second through seeking human aid.
Currently,
the Lutheran Network on Mental Illness/Brain Disorders (LNMI)
recommends a number of ways to act upon the founder of their tradition's mental
health emphases. The LNMI encourages congregants to: participate
in local chapters of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; join a Compeer
program and serve as a friend to someone with mental illness; host a forum on
the topic during an adult Sunday school class; start/maintain church outreach
programs aimed at welcoming those with mental illness to worship services; or
ally congregational plans with ecumenical bodies that have a mental health focus
such as Pathways to Promise or
the Stephen Ministries program. By
enacting such initiatives, local churches can become involved in the ELCA's
broader mental health focus--a concern demonstrated yearly since 1996 via the
All-Lutheran Candlelighting for Mental Illness.
Social Health
Luther’s communal health emphases were augmented by the influences of
the Pietist movement in the seventeenth century. Pietism objected to what was deemed an undue
focus upon doctrine by orthodox Lutheran contemporaries. It protested
a replacement of Luther’s focus upon living faith by staunch dogma. Philip Spener, the “Father of Pietism,” instituted
a revival in pastoral care founded upon Christian charity by stressing ethical
renewal and the merits of thrift, honesty, and diligence. As he stated,
“They [Pietists] must become accustomed not to lose sight of any opportunity
in which they can render their neighbor a service of love” (cited in Forell,
1971, pp. 262-263). By making human service central to his movement,
Spener and others worked toward the establishment of social service institutions
such as orphanages, hospitals, and missions.
During
the nineteenth century, Lutherans reacted to the newly arisen problems of industrialization
and urbanization by developing the Inner Mission and the deaconess movements.
Aware of the tribulations of urban poverty, clerics such as Johann Hinrich
Wichern established rescue homes for neglected children, offered job training
and education, and lauded the curative powers of leisure and sports.
In time, the movement was broadened to include prison reform and care
for the homeless and people with disabilities. The diaconal movement,
like the Inner Mission, found its roots in Luther’s understanding of vocation
and the universal priesthood. Begun in the early nineteenth century, this
program sought renewal of women’s ministry in the church to assist released
female prisoners, the sick, orphans, and the outcast. A contemporary formulation of the diaconal
movement reads: “Because alienation
from God is the deepest affliction of persons and because salvation and well-being
belong indivisibly together, diakonia
takes place in word and deed as wholistic service to persons” (Von Hase, 1981,
p. 660).
On the national
level, the ELCA has, within the past thirty years, issued statements on capital
punishment, aging, sex, ecology, and other pressing social health concerns.
Moreover, Lutheran Services
in America, an alliance of the ELCA, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,
and nearly 300 social ministry organizations, assists individuals with hospital
and residential care, emergency aid, and other social services. Internationally,
Lutheran World Relief works to improve harvests,
health, and education in fifty countries each year. Thus, although the
individualistic focus of the Reformation is still evidenced in the church’s
theological orientation, social ethics are vital.
At a denominational conference on health, healing, and health care, the
conferees stated, “As the church addresses faith questions it addresses societal
issues. Health is not just the health
of a whole person but of the whole society. Health is part of the mending of creation, but it must always be
seen in the larger context of justice” (Lindberg, 1986, p. 198).
Although Lutherans have historically placed importance upon aiding the
misfortunate and oppressed, many contemporary adherents continue to support
the primacy of faith and the seeking of personal grace. Sensing that Satan had a hand in many cases
of disease, Luther prompted his followers to incorporate spiritual tactics into
their quest for well-rounded health and labeled this approach a “higher medicine,
namely faith and prayer” (Tappert, 1955, p. 46).
Sensitivity to issues of health has permeated all levels of the contemporary
church. On the liturgical level, prayers
for life crises such as addiction and surgery have augmented traditional rituals
for birth, marriage, and death. On
the congregational level, Lutheranism has witnessed a growing openness to ecumenical
resources oriented around caring and curing. Faith communities now have
greater access to regional health mission projects and printed programatic material
aimed at facilitating spiritual health. Many modern-day congregations
also choose to utilize such resources within Bible studies and retreats, and
therby hope to actualize Luther's embrace of "higher medicine."
The Reformed Tradition: Physical; Mental; Social; and Spiritual Health back to contents
Like the Lutheran tradition before it, those in the Reformed tradition
(primarily Presbyterians and Congregationalists) trace their origins to the
European Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
John Calvin (1509-1564) became the most important figure within this
Protestant movement through his passionate personality, multiple commentaries
on the Bible, and work in Geneva, Switzerland.
Those in the Reformed tradition acknowledge God’s providential governance
of both natural and human affairs, profess that all human life must be viewed
as subject to God’s will and Christ’s redemptive power, and claim that well-being
cannot become manifest until God’s reign is fulfilled.
Reformed Protestants stress Jesus’ grace as that which has restored persons
to their right relationship with God after the severing of an initial human-divine
concord in the Garden of Eden. They
share a covenant theology viewpoint that calls for all personal and public life
to be brought into agreement with God’s eternal dictates (Smylie, 1986, pp.
204-206).
Physical
Health back
to subheading
Although Calvin viewed relinquishing of control to God as primary, he
also put forth many practical disciplines capable of facilitating physical well-being. Among his list of necessary practices included
“quietness of mind; cheerfulness of spirit; a sober use of meat, drink, physic,
sleep, labor, and recreation; charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness,
gentleness, kindness; comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting
and defending the innocent” (“The Larger Catechism,” 1956, pp. 157-158).
As this inventory indicates, gluttony, drunkenness, and extreme behavior
of any type is deemed injurious. Additionally,
Calvin, like Luther, emphasized one’s calling to a particular vocation, thereby
recognizing usefulness in the secular sphere to be integrally linked with the
possibility of salvation.
Calvinism was brought to America
by English Puritans in the early seventeenth century. Reformed New England
clerics such as Cotton Mather practiced medicine as well as religion. True
to Calvin's call for ultimate reliance upon God, Mather underscored science's
limited efficacy in relation to divine will when he wrote, "O Thou afflicted,
and under Distemper, Go to Physicians in Obedience to God, who has commanded
the Use of Means. But place thy Dependence on God alone to Direct and
Prosper them. And know, that they are all Physicians of no Value, if He
do not so" (Mather, 1972, pp. 5-8).
In the mid-nineteenth century,
Presbyterians began opening hospitals to care for the sick and poor. To
emulate the gospel-writer, Luke, Reformed adherents entered newly created medical
schools like the Columbian-Presbyterian Medical Center of New York. Over
the past 150 years, health care access and medical ethics have been vital for
this physical health mission. As Reformed physician John Bryant wrote,
"Whatever health services are available should be equally available to
all. Departures from equality of distribution are permissible only if
those worse off are made better off" (Smylie, 1986, p. 232). Reemphasizing
covenental relationships so essential in this tradition, ethicists have urged
consideration of the communal aspects of life and their import for health care.
Physical well-being becomes, in the words of Kenneth L. Vaux, dependent upon
the promotion of both "health and diginity" (1984, p. 28).
On the congregational level, physical health is today addressed
through a variety of initiatives. The Presybterian Church (USA) (PCUSA)
encourages member churches to take congregational health ministry surveys, host
health fairs, create care teams that respond to the needs of individuals and
families, and participate in parish nursing programs. Individual United
Churches of Christ also actively pursue health programs. For instance,
the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Boise, Idaho, defines the
mission of its health ministry
in this manner: "Following the example of Jesus, Boise First Health
Ministry promotes the harmony of body, mind and spirit in an atmosphere of mutual
caring and empowerment."
Mental Health back
to subheading
Contemporarily, issues of mental
illness and health are addressed through a number of Reformed initiatives exemplified
by the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1988, the General Assembly of the
PCUSA adopted a resolution that called for ministry and mission to persons affected
by serious mental illness. This statement stationed the church as bridge between
the clinical setting and home life, urged inclusivity within congregations,
and encouraged programs to learn more about mental disease and responses to
"urgent" mental health issues (PCUSA General Assembly, 1988, pp. 443-446).
Resources to facilitate these initiatives are available through the Presbyterian
Serious Mental Illness Network (PSMIN)--which
provides materials and training to congregations. By drawing upon the
PSMIN, participating in the annual Presbyterian Mental Illness Awareness Week,
establishing special Sunday morning worship services around issues of mental
health, and forming mental illness task forces, many local congregations are
working to better welcome people with mental illness into their churches.
Other Reformed traditions
have adopted similar emphases upon religion and mental health. In 1992,
the United Church of Christ began its Mental
Illness Network. Constituted of representatives from hundreds of congregations,
the Network possesses a number of primary concerns, including: education
mediated through churches to end discrimination against those with mental illness;
coordination with other faith groups around such issues; social and legislative
advocacy; and modeling compassion for the rest of society. In this manner,
the Mental Illness Network seeks to emulate an injunction from John 13:34-35
(NRSV) that reads, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
.
Social
Health back
to subheading
In mid-nineteenth-century America, those in the Reformed tradition began
to fulfill a sense of duty to bring all to an awareness of God’s power and will
through a global mission scheme. By practicing medicine to evangelize the world,
Reformed physicians went out to fulfill Matthew 28’s call for a “Great Commission"--one
meant to “make disciples of all the nations.” Accompanying this nineteenth century movement
was a theological liberalizing of the Reformed tradition that began to place
less emphasis on God’s sovereignty and more on divine love made known in Jesus
Christ. During this era, illustrious
Congregationalist theologians such as Horace Bushnell and Henry Ward Beecher
aided in a Reformed transition from emphasis on dying and preparation for the
next life to a focus upon facilitating the development of moral communities
and assisting those suffering from diseases of all types (Smylie, 1986, pp.
214-222).
In the modern day, the Social Justice
Program Area of the PCUSA addresses a broad range of national and international
public issues such as social welfare, community organizing, and child advocacy.
The Presbyterian Health, Education, and Welfare Association (PHEWA)
undertakes similar concerns through proclaiming an inclusive gospel of justice
and mercy while seeking to emulate Christ's works of compassion and love. The
church's bi-monthly social health publication, Church & Society,
offers information on racism, poverty, violence, and other social justice concerns. The
United Church of Christ (UCC) includes the Justice and Witness Ministries and
Justice and Peace Action Network, which enact the UCC's overarching social
health mission of "doing justice, seeking peace, and building community."
Spiritual
Health back
to subheading
John Calvin rose to fame during the Reformation by advocating the sovereignty
of the divine. According to Calvin,
only through realizing the totality of God’s power and control can humans become
conscious of their covenantal relationship with God, and as a corollary, adequately
fulfill their duties. He marked surrender to God's will as essential
for practical and spiritual health. He wrote, “As consulting our self-interest
is the pestilence that most effectively leads to our destruction, so the sole
haven of salvation is to be wise in nothing and to will nothing through ourselves
to follow the leading of the Lord alone” (Calvin, 1960, p. 690).
As all humans are marred by the stain of original sin, everyone is in
a sense dis-eased. However, by seeking
God’s grace, embracing God'sWord, and living within a Christian community, one
is offered the opportunity for health. Frequently referring to God as “Great Physician,” Calvin proposed
that the possibility of victory over illness, sin, and death was offered through
Christ’s redemptive sacrifice.
Today, health continues to
be understood as a dynamic process involving body, mind, and spirit. Life in a believer community is still viewed as integral to well-being.
For example, pastors and physicians in the United Presbyterian Church
in the United States of America (UPCUSA) (which became part of the PCUSA via
a merger in 1983) offered a report in 1960 entitled “The Relation of Christian
Faith to Health.” It stated:
Among the evils from which God in Christ is able to redeem man are the myriad forms of physical and mental illness. It is plainly the understanding of the New Testament that health in body, mind, and spirit is the ultimate will of God . . . Our ministry is not to “souls” in abstraction; our ministry is to men in their totality as creatures whose lives need to be filled with the power of God.(United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 1960, p. 9)
Among the most liberal of all contemporary Protestants, Reformed tradition Christians continue to offer members education on healthy family life, to express concerns for gay and lesbian people and their civil rights (with some United Churches of Christ ordaining them to the ministry), to laud improvements in medical technology while being cognizant to the import of medical ethics, and to maintain an overall emphasis upon the goodness of creation and life. Once a tradition that placed utmost focus upon a distant and sovereign God, modern Reformed believers now stress the nature of Jesus’ ministry as one directed toward good health not only in a hereafter, but in the here and now. For as was written by the UPCUSA in 1978, “The healthy individual is the person whose life is significant and meaningful insofar as it becomes a contribution to the ultimate fulfillment of life in God’s kingdom” (United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 1978, pp. 6-7).
In 1534 the English Parliament renounced the supremacy of the pope and
established the Anglican Church. This
was prompted by the growth of English patriotism, the teachings of Martin Luther,
King Henry VIII’s frustrations with the papacy, and a number of other factors.
During the reign of Henry’s son Edward, the Reformation in England advanced
rapidly. The first Book of Common Prayer
(the authoritative Anglican statement on scripture and worship) was introduced
in 1549. After a brief rule by Edward’s Catholic half-sister
Mary, Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1558 and ruled until 1603.
During this period, Anglicanism established itself as a “via media"--a
middle ground between Protestant and Catholic traditions.
Out of this beginning the Anglican Communion developed. It is now
a worldwide fellowship of independent churches sharing a common heritage. Globally, this body consists of approximately sixty-three million
members, with the Episcopal Church (the American branch of the tradition) constituting
three million of those believers (Booty, 1986, pp. 240-243).
Physical
Health back
to subheading
During the sixteenth century, Anglican clerics often equated sin with
sickness and health with repentance. At
the same time, many Anglicans were focused upon death and dying due to the historical
context of plagues and sickness. Theologians
such as Richard Hooker inaugurated a theology of death that emphasized dying
well. As he wrote in 1574, “Bodily death
is a door of entering unto life; and therefore not so much dreadful, if it be
rightly considered, as it is comfortable” (1864, p. 96).
As with Lutheran and Calvinist contemporaries, it was expected that Anglican
clergy would serve a dual function as both minister and physician.
Such men confronted individual physical problems by presuming that bodily
and spiritual aspects of health were integrally linked.
Like those in the Reformed
tradition, healing arts practiced in the nineteenth century were often tied
to evangelism. As the British Empire spread through the world,
clergy accompanied military units and administrative personnel. By 1900, medical missions manifested a new
ideology (one not solely based on proselytization) that viewed physical healing
as part of an overall emphasis upon benevolence.
Eventually these facilities evolved into fully-functioning hospitals,
with Anglicans initiating the first western-style health care services in China,
Japan, and Alaska.
For the contemporary Anglican
Communion, the use of medical technology has become an important issue. In
1967, a joint commission of the Episcopal Church expressed concerns about genetic
manipulation, the prologation of life for terminally ill patients, and other
scientific procedures that raised "moral issues." It felt that such
medical innovations produced theological connundrums by muddling humanity's
position within creation and its appreciation of the fullness of life. Following
up on these debates, a 1973 report by the Joint Commission on the Church in
Human Affairs put forth principles that still guide Episcopal vantages on physical
well-being. This statement called for an insistence upon the worth and
dignity of human existence, the ability for individuals to exercise choice around
issues of life and death, and an assurance that each person will be gauranteed
the right to survival through adequate nutrition levels and high quality medical
care (Booty, 1986, pp. 263-265).
Mental
Health back
to subheading
Revisions to the Book of Common Prayer over the past two centuries
have been instrumental in the way that members of the Anglican tradition view
sickness and health. Modifications in
1892, 1928, and 1979 have been especially significant.
Most importantly, the equating of illness with sin has been stricken
from these texts. In addition, the efficacy of spiritual healing
has produced much debate. Influenced by Christian Science and other mind-cure movements of
the early nineteenth century, the Episcopal Church in the United States was
further prompted to reconsider the relationship between religion and health.
While some in the tradition continue to stress spiritual approaches to
the neglect of medical science, a statement by the Lambeth Conference of Bishops
of the Anglican Communion in 1930 codified the position held by most contemporary
adherents. As it stated, “The Church must sanction methods
of religious treatment of bodily disease, but in doing so must give full weight
to the scientific discoveries of those who are investigating the interrelation
of spirit, mind, and body” (Lambeth Conference of Bishops, 1948, p. 182).
Currently, issues of mental health and illness are being
addressed by groups such as the Episcopal Mental Illness Network (EPIN).
Since 1992, the EPIN has provided a network to facilitate loving, welcoming
attitudes toward those with mental illness and offered resources to clergy and
lay persons around this issue. With a presence in dioceses nationwide,
the EPIN's goals reflect a resolution passed by the 70th General Convention
of the Episcopal Church in 1991 and reiterated in 2000. Within this decree,
Episcopalians were urged to: "become knowledgeable about mental illness
in order to reduce stigma and stereotypes"; "reach out, welcome, include
and support persons with a mental illness"; develop specific programs around
these concerns; work with existing agencies and organizations addressing mental
illness; advocate for public policies that "provide comprehensive community-based
services, hospital care and research into the causes and treatment of mental
illness"; and make use of the resources and services offered by the EPIN
(General Convention, 1991, p. 822).
Social Health
back to
subheading
A wide range of views on social issues can be found within contemporary
Anglicanism. As the church possesses no centralized authority, even influential
clerics such as the Archbishop of Canterbury do not speak for all believers.
Thus, while all may agree, for example, that there must be some type
of moral criteria for considering issues of sexual orientation, birth control,
economic policies, and use of medical technology, positions are often divided
along liberal/conservative lines within and between congregations.
However, there does seem to be consensus regarding the necessity of basic
human rights and freedoms--an accord voiced by the General Convention of the
Episcopal Church when it insisted upon “the responsibility of society to provide
for all . . . of whatever station, economic level, ability, or talent, those
opportunities for proper growth and development" that will allow each "to
exercise and celebrate his individuality within the community” (General Convention
of the Episcopal Church, 1970, p. 466).
This concern for social
justice has continued into the twenty-first century. On the national level,
the Episcopal Church's Peace and Justice Ministries (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/peace_justice.htm?menu=menu3626)
address criminal and economic justice, environmental stewardship, governmental
relations, and a wide variety of other issues. As stated on the denomination's
website, this office equips Episcopalians to carry out the promise made in their
Baptismal Covenant to "strive for peace and justice and respect the dignity
of every human being." Moreover, many individual congregations have
incoporated social health ministries into their church structure. For
instance, the Social Justice
Ministry of St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church in Cupertino, California
provides day care for seniors who need continuing supervision, supports a center
for parents of children with special needs, coordinates with agencies seeking
to reduce juvenile crime, and contributes to many other community-wide outreach
programs. Like the Episcopal church at-large, St. Jude's hopes through
its social iniatives to emulate Christ by loving one's neighbor as oneself.
.
Spiritual Health
back
to subheading
Due to the decentralized nature of the Anglican tradition, pronouncements
about health and justice tend to be pastoral rather than dogmatic. Concern from the pulpit and personal counseling
thus override juridical standards as congregations confront health and healing
on the local level. Individual judgments
influenced by one’s congregation and pastor are emphasized.
The Joint Commission of the Episcopal Church wrote in 1973, “Ultimately,
each man makes his own decisions, and the Church can only provide the support
necessary to allow him to arrive at those decisions in keeping with his informed
conscience with the least possible civil constraint consistent with the peace
and safety of all people” (Joint Commission of the Episcopal Church, 1973, p.
590). Implied in this statement are
many themes that resonate throughout all mainline Protestant discussions of
faith and health, including a historical Protestant focus upon individualism
and personal culpability, a concern for the larger social repercussions of such
behavior, and the need for church communities to provide support and perspective
for members struggling with controversial health issues.
Yet contemporary Anglican theology
does offer suggestions for the cultivation of spiritual health. Reconcilation
between humanity and God is necessary because of ongoing unhappiness and misery
among God's creation. Life will invariably involve suffering, but this
can at least be partially allayed through the forging of relationships. While
strengthening the human-divine bond is primary, the Anglican is said to be constituted
by "multifarious loyalties"--allegiances that involve bonds with family,
church, local community, nation, and the world. Via these relationships,
one is provided hope and confidence in times of turmoil. Although spiritual
health can be bred within any of these associations, the congregational dimension
is most vital for human-human relationships. As a Protestant tradition
that still is highly ceremonial, religious rituals are prime facilitators of
such connections. Religious studies professor David Smith has written,
"Rituals serve to establish community among persons both in social space
and over time--with the children of God in the past and with those who are to
come" (Smith, 1986, p. 14). Thus, through involvement in church activities
and communion with other congregants, Episcopal adherents can alleviate suffering
and further a notion of spiritual health that links them to both the past and
the future of their tradition.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is an American-born group
formed in 1832 by the merging of movements led by Barton Stone (1772-1844) and
Thomas (1763-1854) and Alexander Campbell (1788-1866).
Most early leaders of this tradition had been Presbyterians and Baptists.
The Stone and Campbell movements rallied around notions of ecumenism
and Christian union. When merger occurred
in 1832, Alexander Campbell favored the name Disciples of Christ while the Stone
churches generally called themselves the Christian Church.
Both names have been used throughout the denomination’s history.
They called for an end to divisiveness amongst Protestant groups and
sought to restore early Christianity by returning to New Testament principles.
Those in this tradition felt that Scripture contained a pattern for all
Christian thought and behavior. Putting
forth the much repeated motto, “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; and where
the Scriptures are silent, we are silent,” members pursued a style of religion
that utilized the Bible as its only existential guide. Spreading rapidly throughout the Midwest and
South in the latter nineteenth century, the movement grew to over one million
members by 1906. Since it did not have
authoritative denominational structures until the later 20th century, most of
the organization’s ideologies were disseminated through influential journals
such as the Christian Standard and the Gospel Advocate.
Although there is often sizeable variation between individual congregations,
the Disciples of Christ has historically joined with other mainline Protestant
groups in embracing social health causes and promoting holistic ideas of wellness
(Harrell, Jr., 1986, pp. 376-378).
Physical
Health back
to subheading
Since first generation leaders of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) focused on the nature of religious unity and doctrinal questions surrounding
the renewal of New Testament Christianity, they devoted little attention to
issues of health or the codification of rules of personal conduct.
However, Disciples did join many fellow American mainline Protestants
in the nineteenth century by condemning a wide variety of behaviors they considered
to be vices. Among these were smoking tobacco, the reading of fiction, and dancing.
As with Methodists, Presbyterians, and others, alcohol consumption came
to dominate this temperance agenda. Linking
this initiative to millennial aspirations, a Disciples editorialist wrote in
1843, “Christians, is it not part of almost every prayer you offer, that God
will soon open upon the world the millennial day?
Are you acting in accordance with your prayers, by lending your influence
to help forward this glorious cause of moral improvement [prohibition], which
must prevail ere the millennium shall fully come?” (quoted in Harrell, 1986,
p. 382).
As the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) tradition entered
the twentieth century, it continued to view prayers for physical health as the
responsibility of individual churches. For the Churches of Christ, a conservative
schism that arose during this period, such imploring of the divine often was
accompanied by belief in the viability of miraculous healings. However,
more liberal Disciples adherents rejected this Pentecostal orientation and maintained
a focus upon cultivating physical health through congregational and social action.
For instance, prohibition advocacy gave way to the exploration of ways
to treat alcoholism. Such endeavors continue to be primarily the bastion
of individual congregations. As an example, the First Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) of Marietta,
Georgia's
Congregational Health Ministry promotes a holistic vision of health that
encompasses all domains discussed in this essay. Like many other local
bodies, this church's Minister of Congregational Health serves a multifaceted
function as health educator and counselor, developer of support groups, trainer
of volunteers, and integrator of faith and health.
On a macro-level, beginning
in the late 1960s, this tradition developed a more thorough denominational structure
and adopted the formal name, "Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)."
Since that time, this national entity has put forth many resolutions related
to physical health. For example, a 1999 statement from the denomination's
General Assembly issued a call for members to "work for the establishment
of health care for all, regardless of the ability to pay"; support "preventive
health care initiatives"; and "advocate for initiatives both public
and private to provide health care treatment for short and long term illness"
(Tuttle, 1999, p. 2). Thus, although the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) remains the most decentralized of all mainline Protestant groups, over
the past thirty years it has increasingly manifested a unified voice--one which
has sought to perpetuate the tradition's historical focus upon physical well-being.
Mental
Health
To restore the apostolic Christianity so vital to Disciples' conceptions
of appropriate faith, the tradition began building institutions in the early
twentieth century that possessed a heightened social conscience. While
more thoroughly addressing existential issues such as the meaning of death and
suffering over the past one hundred years, members of the denomination have
also developed numerous projects around issues of mental health. For instance,
by 1981 the Disciples' National Benevolent Association was operating eight American
centers that served 1,500 children and others with mental illness (Harrell,
1986, 390). At a 1999 convocation, the church's General Board asserted
that such treatment was spiritually imperative. Within a resolution entitled
"On Health Care in the United States," the Board stressed the necessity
of advocating for public and private initiatives for treatment of mental disabilities
and thereby provided an ideological basis for further projects around this concern
(Tuttle, 1999, p. 2).
Social
Health back
to subheading
Although Disciples members vigilantly campaigned against drinking alcohol,
many unified denominational efforts focused upon issues of social health often
suffered due to the tradition’s anti-institutional ideology. For example, opposition to missionary, Bible,
and education societies was based upon the apparent lack of such organizations
during the New Testament era. While
this aversion inhibited the growth of benevolent associations during the tradition’s
infancy, denominationally-run philanthropies did arise after the Civil War.
However, most Disciples continued to take a more philosophical rather
than material approach to social health. Writing
in the Gospel Advocate in 1882, Augusta Smith stated, “If we did not
violate the laws of nature, humanity would be largely free from the pains and
aches, the debility and suffering, that now renders the existence of so many
miserable” (Smith, 1882, p. 274).
After 1870, liberal
Disciples became increasingly concerned about social injustice as a proper Christian
concern. As James A. Garrison, the foremost
leader of this liberal wing, wrote in 1894:
Never before has
the ministry taken so deep an interest in the great social problems which affect
the well being of man in the world . . . . We would urge upon our ministers
and members the importance of extending practical sympathy and aid to all wise
movements, looking to the purification of our political life, the removal of
unjust burdens from the shoulders of the oppressed, the enactment of laws for
the better protection of the life and the health of the toiling masses, . .
. in a word, to lend their influence and assistance to whatever will help to
lessen crime, diminish the burdens of the weak, protect the home, purify our
public life and make the world a more desirable place in which to live.
(Garrison, 1894, p. 774).
As a result of this
new found concern, Disciples began building hospitals, orphanages, widows homes,
and other similar institutions in the early twentieth century. Expanding their foreign missions during this
period, the church sponsored such initiatives in the Belgian Congo, China, and
the Philippines as well as the United States. In the latter twentieth
century, liberal Disciples searched for ways to accommodate their faith to rapid
social change. Challenged beginning
in the 1960s by issues such as homosexuality, abortion, drug use, and divorce,
they have attempted over the past few decades to address these debates within
the church’s historical tradition.
Contemporary liberal
adherents of the Disciples tradition fit squarely within mainline Protestantism. Social health concerns are made manifest through
the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) Home Missions. Initiatives that offer a public
witness to the church's emphasis upon social justice include: an AIDS Ministry
Network; the distribution of anti-violence packets for use by Sunday school
classes, youth groups, and peace with justice groups; the production of criminal
justice workshop materials; resolutions and strategies for environmental preservation;
and published materials on issues of racial justice. Most thoroughly exemplifying
this focus upon social health is the Disciples Peace Fellowship (DPF). This
organization was formed in 1935 and is the oldest peace organization of its
type in any denomination. Originally created to facilitate the abolition
of war and the creation of peace among all people in all nations, the DPF currently
focuses upon demilitarizaton, ending the nuclear threat, abolishing the death
penalty, seeking labor justice along the United States-Mexico border, and promoting
corporate responsibility. Through this and many other projects, adherents
continue to uphold the long-standing Disciples' slogan, "In essentials
unity, in opinions liberty, in all things charity."
Spiritual
Health back
to subheading
Leaders in the Disciples tradition have always marked spiritual education
as key to the pursuit of well-rounded humanity. As Alexander Campbell wrote, “True science
affirms that all that is in man, and only what is in him, is to be educated;
that every organ and sense and power, whether animal, intellectual, moral or
religious, can be improved, and ought to be improved by education” (Campbell,
n.d., p. 460). Convinced that all nature
was governed by God’s natural law and taught to humans through revelation and
experience, Campbell and others felt that health-oriented rules could be derived
from divine dictates--a belief that thus united material and spiritual notions
of well-being.
An editor for the Christian-Evangelist wrote in 1957, "It
would seem that the best approach to the matter of healing by the Church would
be to acknowledge freely the basic place of prayer as integral in maintaining
or regaining health ("What is faith healing?" 1957, p. 650).
Although not advocates of Pentecostally oriented faith healing, contemporary
liberal Disciples meld spiritual health and religiously inspired moral stances
with proper action in society and culture. Since the tradition's inception,
it has adamately promoted liberty of conscience in nonessential beliefs. Those
in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that ally themselves with mainline
Protestantism refuse to provide a rigid system for all behavior. Nevertheless,
they continue to assume that the cultivation of spirituality informed by God-given
reason will be an adequate guide for the promotion of wellness.
Conclusion
When the mainline traditions discussed above are considered in unison,
a number of similarities emerge. For instance, the individualistic nature of
the Reformation has led all aforementioned denominations to embrace notions
of personal responsibility for physical and mental well-being. Additionally, the importance of pursuing God’s
grace within a believer community has induced mainline Protestants to nurture
healthy church structures in an attempt to bring about spiritual wellness. Finally, social health concerns pervade all
periods of mainline Protestant history. Originally
spawned from a proselytizing emphasis, believers reworked their perspective
during the American Social Gospel Movement of the nineteenth century into one
that sought to not only convert but also to alleviate the ills of poverty, substance
abuse, or dangerous working conditions.
All the denominations
discussed in this essay are members of the National
Council of Churches USA, an organization that shares the holistic vision
of health advocated by its members. It strives for peace and justice in
the social, political, and economic orders. Its constitutive denominations
engage in a wide variety of ecumenical activities focused upon eco-justice,
justice for women, migrant labor conditions, and a host of other concerns. Thus,
contemporary mainline Protestants work on a wide variety of levels to bring
about physical, mental, social, and spiritual wellness.
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