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The Institute
The Institute is a think-tank and in-residence training program which seeks to integrate the fields of medicine, faith, and the church. Our primary purpose is to train Christian physicians and congregations to integrate the domains of medicine and healing within the Christian life.
This vision is pursued in three complementary ways. First, the Institute trains fellows in a one year communal experience in which the medical context is explored theologically and practically. Second, the Institute facilitates conferences, retreats, and workshops aiding academic physicians in their quest to faithfully bring together faith and work. Finally, the Institute works with local congregations to train lay communities on the connections between conventional medicine and ecclesial mission.
About the Institute
The purpose of the Institute is to train physicians and other healthcare professionals to understand and practice medicine in faithful ways - integrating Christian faith as an essential component to health care. Currently, the main tasks of the Institute include the Fellow's Program, the annual "Faith & Medicine Conference," and other sponsored events at local congregations.
On Christian Doctrine
The theological beliefs of the Institute are Christian in nature. We are ecumenical in that we welcome all those who are Christian in their beliefs and practices. We hold the Apostle’s Creed to be an acceptable declaration of our faith. We esteem the Bible to be a reliable revelation of God’s word. And we believe that Jesus Christ is the self-revelation of the Triune God.
We believe that true healing comes through Jesus, through the ministry of His Word, His Body and the Holy Spirit. Healing is best understood in terms of salvation incorporating spiritual, emotional, intellectual and relational elements. Christ heals us from our sins by faith and restores us into a growing relationship with creation, with others, with ourselves, and to an eternal relationship with God.
On Healing and Science
We believe that all physical healing comes from God. Physical healing occurs both through supernatural means, and most frequently through the common grace of accumulated knowledge of medical science.
We believe that knowledge from science is not in contradiction to Christian faith, but is consistent with and contingent upon it. The scientific enterprise, as it demonstrates a rational universe, observes a fallen world, and innovates therapeutic intervention, arises from the biblical story of redemption. Furthermore, we believe that science is not a worldview unto itself, but a methodology that requires a complementary worldview. The debate is not between faith and science as is commonly argued, but to what faith and worldview science is indentured.
On the Medical Profession
We believe that sick and suffering people are deeply vulnerable. They are searching for answers to their suffering, the meaning of their life, their relationship to God, and what happens after they die.
We believe that Christian physicians have the privilege to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of patients. Physicians have a window of opportunity to bring healing, especially at the end of life, to pray with patients, answer spiritual questions, and offer hope even when no physical cure is accessible
We claim that the medical profession has in the past secularized its medical duty and eliminated religious expression from the patient-physician relationship. Rather than yielding to this pressure, we believe that the Christian church must reassert its vision, not on secular medicine in a mode of dominance, but with its own members. The church must arise and reclaim the healing arts as part of its own mission. Individual Christian physicians need to realign themselves with the church's mission, not by leaving secular medicine, but by reasserting their allegiance to Christ's health mission within the secular.
We also know that most Christian physicians have not received training on how to think about healing from a biblical perspective or practice medicine that authentically incorporates Christian values and ideas. The Church does not teach Christians in medical training how to integrate their faith to patient care or scientific inquiry. This is part of our mission.
Finally, it is not our goal to train physicians to use their relationship with patients to make proselytes. We recognize that patients enter into relation with their physicians in a manner of weakness; and such weakness should never be exploited. However, we also believe that no physician, or anyone for that matter, is capable of actually being neutral or unbiased. Rather, we believe that physicians should not hide from their patients their faith presuppositions pretending that they do not exist. If this is done gently and with appropriate timing, it is our conviction that most patients will deeply appreciate this knowledge and will respond positively in return. We acknowledge that this is risky in a secular context, but has the potential to transform the doctor-patient relationship into a healthier context for healing. Moreover, we want to affirm that just because a physician acknowledges his or her faith, it does not absolve the physician from maintaining a spirit of fairness and humility toward those with a different worldview. Our conviction is that self-revelation is a move toward honesty, fairness, and dialogue. Safe relationships are not created through a facade of neutrality. Instead, they involve truthfulness, love, and respect. In this manner, Christian physicians can simultaneously be patient centered, while at the same time maintain acknowledgement that the entire healing process points to Christ, the Great Physician, in his love and mercy toward all.