Krankheitserfahrung und Religion

Dealing with illness has always played an important role in the history of Christianity. In contrast though, current Protestant theology is clearly uneasy with the issue. In light of this, Thorsten Moos undertakes a comprehensive systematic-theological study of the fundamental problems of dealing with illness. Starting with insights from philosophical anthropology and phenomenology, medical philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies, he analyses religiously significant frameworks of how illness is experienced, which can be understood with the help of central theological topoi. In this way, the biographical sense of illness, the dignity of the sufferer, the hope for health, and individual care of the ill are revealed as concerns of religious practice as well as of dogmatic and ethical reflection. The author thus also makes a contribution to topical issues of medical and care ethics.