Transcriber’s notes:
The text of this e-book has been preserved in its original form apart
from silent correction of a few minor punctuation flaws (missing commas
and full stops). There are occasional spelling inconsistencies as a
consequence of its multiple authorship. One missing footnote marker has
been inserted at what seemed an appropriate position. Footnotes have
been numbered and relocated below the relevant paragraphs.
MEDICINE AND THE CHURCH
MEDICINE
AND THE CHURCH
BEING A SERIES OF STUDIES ON THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND
THE CHURCH’S MINISTRY TO THE SICK
BY
SIR CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, K.C.B., F.R.S.
A. W. ROBINSON, D.D.
CHARLES BUTTAR, M.D.
STEPHEN PAGET, F.R.C.S.
BISHOP OF BLOEMFONTEIN.
HON. SYDNEY HOLLAND.
PREBENDARY FAUSSET, M.A.
JANE WALKER, M.D.
T. B. HYSLOP, M.D.
ELLIS ROBERTS.
M. CARTA STURGE.
H. G. G. MACKENZIE, M.A., M.B.
EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY
GEOFFREY RHODES
WITH A FOREWORD BY THE
LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD.,
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.
1910
FOREWORD
BY
THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
FARNHAM CASTLE, SURREY:
_July 4, 1910_.
Dear Mr. Geoffrey Rhodes,
The appearance of your volume is very welcome. There is, I believe,
a real need for such a work. You are to be congratulated on the
results of the energy and patience which you have bestowed upon its
preparation. You have a true reward in the support of writers so varied
and conspicuous in distinction as those whose names you have been able
to bring together.
You are enabling the whole reading world to judge for itself, how the
subject of ‘Spiritual,’ ‘Mental,’ or ‘Faith’ healing, which during
the past ten years has forced itself upon public notice, is being
regarded by able, thoughtful, and impartial minds. There is no
doubt that scientific medical men are not going to pay attention to
evidence of an unscientific character. They will not waste their time
over it. Nevertheless, to phenomena duly attested, and to evidence
scientifically recorded, they will give the most scrupulous attention.
It is the detailed and accurate collection and classification of facts
by those who are trained for the task and expert in its process, that
must precede generalisations upon this new, or shall we call it,
revived, branch of therapeutics.
Prejudice against it will be found to exist both in ecclesiastic and
in scientific circles. Your book will help to dissipate prejudice by
the spread of better-informed opinion. The time, indeed, is opportune.
The _British Medical Journal_ of June 18, 1910, has published a series
of papers by men ‘who could speak with the highest authority on the
relations between mind and body, as exhibited in the phenomena of
disease.’ ‘Their opinion,’ as the _Journal_ tells us, ‘serves as an
authoritative reminder that there are bodily ills which cannot be
cured by pills and potions, but which yield to methods which, for
want of a better word, may be called “mental”; that cures which, in
a former day, would have been denied by unbelievers and accepted as
miracles by the faithful, really happen, and that they can be explained
without invoking supernatural intervention.’ On the other hand, we
are confident the Church of Christ will never identify itself with
charlatan methods which might delude the poor and the ignorant into the
superstitious idea that they can be more cheaply and effectively healed
by a magic or thaumaturgic ministry, than by the knowledge and skill
of trained and certificated doctors and surgeons. To quote our report
in the Lambeth Conference of 1908, ‘Medical science is the handmaid of
God and His Church’ (N.B. not of His clergy, but of that Body of Christ
in which all true callings unite in serving), ‘and should be fully
recognised as the ordinary means appointed by Almighty God for the care
and healing of the human body.’
The temper of our age favours an inquiry conducted in a spirit which
will neither disregard the requirements of science, nor rule miracles
out of court as impossible. We need not be anxious as to the results.
It looks, indeed, as if science were only just now awaking to the
realisation of its possibilities through psychical treatment; and as
if the Church had never yet realised to the full its responsibility
and its power in ministration to sickness, and its influence over the
reason and the imagination.
‘Suspect everything,’ says St. Teresa, as quoted by Sir Clifford
Allbutt, ‘which weakens the use of our reason; for by such a way, we
shall never attain to the liberty of the Spirit.’ ‘Prayer,’ says the
_British Medical Journal_, in the article quoted above, ‘inspired by
a living faith, is a force acting within the patient, which places
him in the most favourable condition for the stirring of the pool of
hope that lies, still and hidden it may be, in the depths of human
nature.’ Truly, it is a tribute to the intellectual temper of our day
that two such quotations, the one from a medieval saint, the other from
a leading article in our modern medical journal, can appropriately
be adduced in illustration of the spirit in which you have edited
your volume. I trust it will have many readers. That it may promote
the wise and temperate study of spiritual and mental, as well as of
physical, forces and disorders, is my earnest hope and desire. That it
may also tend to correct shallow and superficial delusions on the part
of ignorant persons who imagine that they can dispense with scientific
knowledge, and ignore the facts of mortality in suffering, disease,
and death, is an expectation which I pray may be fulfilled.
Wishing, therefore, your volume all success,
I am, dear Mr. Geoffrey Rhodes,
Yours very sincerely,
Herbert E. Winton.
EDITOR’S PREFACE
I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to a host of kind people for help
in compiling this book. First of all to the many clergymen and doctors
who assisted me in finding suitable contributors for the different
chapters, and then no less to the contributors themselves who, in spite
of the exigencies of professional duties, managed not only to write
for these pages but to take part in many editorial discussions often
entailing lengthy interviews and correspondence.
The Bishop of Winchester’s work in connexion with this book has not
been confined to the Foreword which appears under his name. I have had
the benefit of his Lordship’s advice and help throughout, and he has
spared the time to read all the essays in manuscript.
My thanks are also due to Sir Thomas Barlow and Sir Clifford Allbutt
for assistance in reading the proofs of the medical chapters.
Messrs. Macmillan and the Editors of the _Hibbert Journal_ and the
_British Medical Journal_ have kindly allowed me to make extracts.
G. R.
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD v
By THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.
EDITOR’S PREFACE xi
INTRODUCTION:
PART I. 3