{"title":"Health Care as Vocation? Practicing Faithfully in an Age of Disenchantment","authors":"Warren A. Kinghorn","doi":"10.1093/cb/cbz009","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In his 1917 lecture “Science as a Vocation,” Max Weber challenged current and aspiring scholars to abandon any pretense that science (Wissenschaft) bears within itself any meaning. In a disenchanted age, he argued, science could at best offer “knowledge of the techniques whereby we can control life . . . through calculation,” and any meaning or moral direction to scientific research—including religious meaning—must be imposed on it from without. Weber presciently anticipated that many present-day health care practitioners would struggle to find meaning for their work within complex “state-capitalist” health care systems, along with predictable quasi-religious responses. But how are Christian practitioners to practice faithfully in a disenchanted age? The authors of this special issue lean deeply into the loci of Christian theology and Christian practice, some challenging the views of the body and of nature that informed Weber’s theory of disenchantment, and all offering resources and paths by which practitioners might “look the fate of the age full in the face” with courage and wisdom.","PeriodicalId":416242,"journal":{"name":"Christian bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Christian bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbz009","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In his 1917 lecture “Science as a Vocation,” Max Weber challenged current and aspiring scholars to abandon any pretense that science (Wissenschaft) bears within itself any meaning. In a disenchanted age, he argued, science could at best offer “knowledge of the techniques whereby we can control life . . . through calculation,” and any meaning or moral direction to scientific research—including religious meaning—must be imposed on it from without. Weber presciently anticipated that many present-day health care practitioners would struggle to find meaning for their work within complex “state-capitalist” health care systems, along with predictable quasi-religious responses. But how are Christian practitioners to practice faithfully in a disenchanted age? The authors of this special issue lean deeply into the loci of Christian theology and Christian practice, some challenging the views of the body and of nature that informed Weber’s theory of disenchantment, and all offering resources and paths by which practitioners might “look the fate of the age full in the face” with courage and wisdom.
在1917年的演讲《科学作为一种职业》(Science as a Vocation)中,马克斯·韦伯(Max Weber)向当时有抱负的学者提出挑战,要求他们放弃任何认为科学本身具有任何意义的伪装。他认为,在一个幻灭的时代,科学最多只能提供“我们控制生命的技术知识……“通过计算”,科学研究的任何意义或道德方向——包括宗教意义——都必须从外部强加给它。韦伯有先见之地预见到,许多当今的医疗保健从业者将在复杂的“国家资本主义”医疗保健系统中,以及可预见的准宗教反应中,努力寻找工作的意义。但是,在一个不抱幻想的时代,基督徒信徒如何忠实地实践呢?本期特刊的作者深入探讨了基督教神学和基督教实践的脉络,其中一些人挑战了韦伯祛魅理论中关于身体和自然的观点,所有人都提供了资源和途径,通过这些资源和途径,实践者可能会以勇气和智慧“直面时代的命运”。