Healing Bodies, Saving Souls
Subtitle: Medical Missions in Asia and Africa (Clio Medica 80) (The Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine)
Publisher: Editions Rodopi BV
Published: November 30, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9789042021068
Subjects: Christian mission & evangelism; History of medicine; ASIA; Africa; History / General; Christian Ministry - Missions; History; Religion
Description: "Missionary medicine flourished during the period of high European imperialism, from the late-1800s to the 1960s. Although the figure of mission doctor--exemplified by David Livingstone and Albert Schweitzer--exercised a powerful influence on the Western imagination during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, few historians have examined the history of this important aspect of the missionary movement. This collection of articles on Asia and Africa uses the extensive archives that exist on medical missions to both enrich and challenge existing histories of the clinic in colonial territories--whether of the dispensary, the hospital, the maternity home or leprosy asylum. Some of the major themes addressed within include the attitude of different Christian denominations towards medical mission work, their differing theories and practices, how the missionaries were drawn into contentious local politics, and their attitude towards supernatural cures."--Back