The Cult of Asklepios
1. Contextualize: What are the methods by which the divine being heals in the accounts, and what are the various methods by which people pay for the services of the divine?
2. Analyze: What do those methods of payment teach you about the value of divine services?
Israelite Healthcare
For two points, answer the following two questions, for one point each:
1. Every healthcare system creates a clinical reality in which classification is required. What categories do you find in the biblical texts, and what do these categories teach you about how illness is understood in this particular context?
2. Select one patient from the Gospel of Mark account and identify their social location. Explain what their social location teaches you about how Jesus (in The Gospel of Mark) understands distribution of care. JUST Select one of the options below for your essay. DON'T WRITE THE ESSAY NOW. You are provided with a topic, some research questions and primary source options.
You are not limited to the research questions that I have offered, but they can help get you started. You will find all the resources you need to complete this assignment in the folder titled "Analytical Essay," in which you will find links to primary and secondary sources. ALSO CHOOSE ONE OF THE ARTICLES THAT YOU HAVE READ TO BE YOUR PRIMARY SOURCE.
Topic Choices
1. Anorexia: nervosa and mirabilis. What distinctions exist between anorexia nervosa and anorexia mirabilis ("holy anorexia"), and how can an understanding of-and appreciation for-religious practices related to food intake or food denial assist in addressing the challenges of eating disorders and/or body dysmorphic disorders? Primary source: selection from The Life of St. Catherine of Siena or a primary source of your choosing.
2. Consecrated Virginity and Slut Shaming. The movement of consecrated virginity within Christianity created space for women to claim ownership over their marital status, sexual activity and gynecological health...but it is complicated.
This topic asks you to consider texts that argue for women's sexual autonomy, to reflect on where authority is located in these theologies, and to ask how these texts assist in thinking about the way we think and speak publically about women's sexual and gynecological health. Primary sources to consider: the Acts of Thecla; Jerome's Letter 22 to Eustochium; Sophronios' Life of Mary of Egypt; the Canons of Elvira or The Life of Pelagia.
3. Religion and Public Health. How does religion and/or religious belief inform responses to disease or the fear of disease? What can we learn from historic, religious responses to disease to better prepare us to respond to disease, the spread of disease, or fear of the spread of disease?
Primary sources to consider: Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise 7, Mortality; Gregory Nazianzus, On Love for the Poor; Procopius, History of the Wars; any number of primary sources from The Black Death or a primary source of your choosing.
4. Self-Harm and Ascetic Discipline. A naïve or uninformed approach to monastic asceticism could lead one to conclude that monks and nuns are self-harming; how can knowledge of theology of purification (body mortification, deprivation or the sick role) assist us in better understanding an individual's decision to engage in methods of self-harm such as cutting, burning, healing prevention, carving or trichotillomania? Primary sources to consider include: The Lives of Simeon the Stylite, The Life of the Holy Radegund or a primary source of your choosing.
5. The Noon-Day Demon. The World Health Organization claims "an estimated 350 million" [2] people suffer from depression. Evidence of depression can be found in ancient and medieval texts. What insight can religious approaches to mental health offer either to those who care for the mentally ill or some of those 350 million?
Primary sources to consider: selections from John Cassian's The Institutes, from The Life of Christina Markyate; Thomas Aquinas' Q. 35, Second Part of the Summa Theologica, selections from The Book of Margery Kempe, selections from Martin Luther's Letters of Spiritual Counsel or a primary source of your choosing.