The Institute is a thinktank 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. 

2007 - 08 Fellowship Program

See the profiles of this year's in-residence Fellows

The Institute of Faith and Medicine is a thinktank and in-residence training program.  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.

To learn more about the Institute and its mission, history, and beliefs, click on the links at left.

Fellow Tiffany McNair (2006-07) with Bill Pearson

To provide context, curriculum, educational opportunities and resources for physicians, medical students and personnel to integrate and explore the relationship between faith and medicine;

To provide training in biblical and practical theology for members of the medical community;

To empower physicians and students to think and act biblically about the relationships by and amongst, medicine, healing and faith;

To offer an integrative health care practicum with research opportunities; and

To provide a community of persons who desire to engage the Christian faith with medical practice.

To assist local churches in faithfully living out her healing mission by bringing the church and conventional medicine into dialogue and partnership. 

Dr. Rachel Peragallo (Fellow 2005-06)

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 privelge 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 yeilding to this pressure, we believe that the Christian church must reassert its vision, not on secular medicine in a mode of dominence, 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 allegience 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. 

The practice of having two different opinions - one in the office and the other at home - takes its toll on a person’s spirituality and personal integrity. He/she is expected to be one kind of person at work and then their true self in private. This can create a deep sense of guilt because faith pleads for lives of integrity. The guise of objectivity between physician and patient, instead, creates a spiritual and psychological hypocrisy that is impossible to rectify with faith.

The complexity of problems of the current culture of medicine and medical education shows little sign of change. The integration of faith and medicine is seen generally as a minor issue with little time, money, or focus presently given by the medical establishment. We see, however, popular culture and the media giving periodic attention to this integration precisely because it is the patients who daily feel the harsh failings of the medical enterprise. It is the popular murmurings that continue to beg their doctor to pray with them and offer transcendent comfort in times of fear and confusion. Most patients want deeper relationships with their doctors. Conversations should go deeper, beyond the issues of technique and mechanistic healing, to the core of what it means to be human in an often-imperfect world. But despite some minor attempts within medical education, many physicians remain personally unhealthy and are not going to a deeper level with their patients. The scientific paradigm has proven itself valuable in curing certain diseases and human ailments, but it has failed to enlighten the path by which doctors might learn to be healers.

Although post-modern philosophy has only begun to infiltrate the ideas of modern medicine, it has already largely uncovered the myth of personal objectivity and physician neutrality.** Under the present paradigm doctors are expected to avoid offering negative judgment while withholding their moral and religious views. Post-modernism, however, has demonstrated the impossibility of objectivity. Every thought and word is based upon certain presuppositions, ideas, and beliefs that are not neutral. Even the concept of objectivity is rooted in a philosophical belief system that itself cannot be verified using its own criteria. When the doctor, therefore, remains silent concerning a questionable patient practice, the silence itself is a moral position.

The growing spiritual crisis among physicians, the philosophical shift toward post-modernism, and the call of patients for more holistic health care afford a new opportunity to reintroduce faith into medical education. The purpose of the Institute is to train physicians and other healthcare professionals to think and practice in faithful ways - integrating faith as an essential component of what it means to offer “health” and “care.” The goal of the Institute is to immerse fellows for one year in a communal experience in which theology, philosophy, and history are deeply engaged, and where each student practices medicine with full engagement of their religious tradition.

Although we believe that all religious traditions need to reengage the culture of medicine, our center is dedicated to Christian faith. Its resources and its birth come from a heart committed to Christ. We desire for a dialogue to take place among religions. We promote an interactive ecumenism. We believe all participants will practice the greatest integrity and best utilize limited resources by focusing on their own theology and history.

The goal of the Fellows Program is to prepare leaders in their respective medical areas as Christians through-and-through. We desire to prepare a new guild of leadership who will be able to understand and articulate the presuppositions, unspoken assumptions, and sociological practices of their colleagues. Fellows will not only focus on their personal spirituality, but be prepared to offer fresh vision in theory and practice on how medicine can be practiced in a way that connects the best of modern science within the Christian tradition.

Specific long-term objectives include:

• Fellows will become familiar with Scripture and theology so that they are able to articulate and promote Christian beliefs from within the structures of health care.
  
  
  
• Fellows will be familiar with philosophical concepts, and be able to identify and critique those worldviews that shape the structures of medicine
  
  
  
• Fellows will be nurtured in those habits and spiritual practices that will enable them to live outstanding moral lives of integrity and professionalism.
  
  
  
• Fellows will be able to teach and promote future students a medical practice that is integrated with faith.

The Institute of Faith and Medicine is a project of the Longwood Christian Community (LCC).  LCC is a diverse and ecumenical community of faith composed of students, researchers, residents, faculty, and friends committed to living out our calling as the body of Christ at Harvard University’s Longwood Medical campus.  The community:

Believes that in the gospel, we find calling (identity and guidance), conciliation (healing), community (family), and content (truth);

Hopes to be an agent of blessing and positive change in Harvard’s health care and biomedical science community; and

Seeks to make space for the calling, healing, and truth of the Gospel of Christ in Longwood.

Visit the LCC website

The Fellow's Program is a one year, in-residence fellowship aimed toward training future physicians who show potential to be leaders within academic medicine and who have the desire to integrate their Christian faith with medical practice.  Since its inception in 2005, there have been six fellows who have gone through the program.

The Fellow's Program is designed for medical students who have completed at least one year of clinical training.  Most fellows are able to remain full-time students with their respective medical schools because the program has a significant clinical research practicum (4-6 months) that counts as clinical credit at most medical schools. 

The Institute also aims to fund each of its accepted participants by waiving 100% of its tuition and by providing a modest monthly living stipend.  Generous support from donors makes this possible.

Drs. Monique Anderson and Rachel Peragallo (Fellows 2005-06)

The Fellow's Program consists of three core seminars and an integrative faith-medicine project.  The three seminars meet weekly from September through December meeting ten hours per week.  The seminar format consists of participative discussions from all fellows led by the instructor.  Each seminar meeting has required reading or research that forms the basis of the discussion.

1. Seminar on Biblical Theology:  weekly meeting time: 2.5 hours

This seminar aims to prepare fellows in a comprehensive understanding of biblical and redemptive history through an intensive reading of the major books of the Bible.  Although this seminar is punctuated with some doctrinal conversations (e.g. Trinity, biblical canon, nature of salvation), the main focus is on gaining a comprehensive understanding of the Bible's "story."  Each weekly seminar focuses on reading a single book from the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, etc.) with discussion focused on the teaching and scope of that particular book.  The seminar also explores key issues (suffering, divine judgment, servanthood, etc.) particularly relevant to medicine using the lens of the biblical book under review.  Fellows will complete the seminar with (1) a solid theological and literary familiarity of the major books of the Bible, (2) recognition of the historical context of each book and the general structure of biblical history, and (3) a redemptive-historical sensitivity to key theological issues important to the patient-physician relationship.

2. Seminar on Faith-Medicine Integration: weekly meeting time: 2.5 hours

This seminar aims to describe, critique, and synthesize the key issues facing Christian physicians as they enter the world of medicine.  The seminar introduces fellows to seminal readings that bring medicine and Christian faith into direct dialogue.  The readings will focus on topics such as (1) the nature of the Kingdom, (2) the church's mission in relation to medicine, (3) relevant historical moments in medical history, (4) the culture of modern medicine with special attention to the problems of secularity and pluralism, (5) a Christian approach to medical ethics, (6) a theology that explores the meaning and practices of being a physician, and (7) a theology that explores the nature of being a patient.  The aim of the seminar is to introduce and ground fellows in the rich Christian theological resources that can guide Christians as they encounter the complex world of medicine as it is actually practiced and experienced.

Sample Bibliography:
Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture.  By: Lesslie Newbigin. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1986

The Rebirth of the Clinic: An Introduction to Spirituality in Health Care. By: Daniel P. Sulmasy. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2007.

Reclaiming the Body:Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine. By Joel Shuman and Brian Volck. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2006. 

The Healing of Persons. By: Paul Tournier. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1965.

Matters of Life and Death:  Today's Health Care dilemmas in the light of Christian faith. By: John Wyatt, Leichester, UK: Inter-Varity Press. 1998

3. Seminar on Medical Case Studies: weekly meeting time: 5 hours

The goal of each case study is to concretely realize how biblical truths and theological ideas are practically embodied in the clinical context.   Within each case fellows learn how to process and assess the circumstances and presenting problems through group discussion, mentorship from an attending physician, and individual research.   Fellows learn how to assess and describe key clinical issues, and develop a comprehensive response to the patient in light of an informed Christian approach.  Each case follows a four stage method:

Four Stages:

1. Case Introduction (1 hr):  Fellows receive a written description of the case from the attending physician with relevant clinical information.  Fellows identify key issues and questions from the case for further individual research.  Then each fellow is assigned to study one key issue raised by the case.

2. Case Preparation:  Fellows individually research their assigned question.  Fellows summarize key information regarding their question, perform a literature review, and write on their findings in response to the case.

3. Case Presentation (2 hrs):  Fellows meet with the attending physician in order to discuss the case.  The attending leads a conversation on the case discussing a diagnosis and prognosis.  Fellows are encouraged to engage the case based on the readings and discussions from the other seminars.  Fellow also presents their findings on their research question.

4. Case Writing (2 hrs):  Each fellow will take responsibility for writing up the final form of each case to be used for a future manual for other medical students.  The goal of the final form of the manual is to guide others through each case by compiling the case itself, relevant medical, social, and spiritual, information, as well as key literature relevant to the topic.

Integrated Research Practicum

Fellows develop and implement an integrative health care practicum that includes a research component.  The project may take place through the church or the health care system, and ideally will integrate both into one project.  A major goal of the medical practicum is to deliver quality health care and bold research without diluting the Christian identity of the practitioners.  It is a central tenant of the Institute that high-level medicine can be delivered without altering the integrity of either the secular university or the sponsoring church body.  The fellow will work with her or his medical school or residency director in satisfying all of their school’s program requirements that include:  (1) obtaining a qualified physician mentor who oversees the medical and research elements of the practicum, (2) gaining full approval from their program on obtaining an added research year with agreement to the details of both the research and practicum, (3) seek funding for the research through the university’s guidance, and (4) if research is being conducted, to gain the necessary approval from their university’s IRB.

Fellows may also develop projects that are located in collaboration with a church or collection of churches.  When this is the case, fellows are to work in and with the church; not simply use it for their own end.  Moreover, fellows will be required to obtain a qualified spiritual mentor from within the sponsoring church community who will have an active part in their spiritual development.  The spiritual mentor will also play the vital role of being a key point person between the health project and the church-at-large.

The Institute also offers fellows the experience of working within existing health care clinics that are actively integrating faith and medicine.  Opportunities abound for fellows to travel to South America, Africa, and Asia to experience medical missions.  There are also several opportunities in the United States (e.g. Nashville, Philadelphia, Texas) for fellows to train with physicians who consciously integrate Christian faith and health care.  

The goal of the practicum is for fellows to experience several possible expressions of what might be called “Christian medicine”.  This can take the form of shadowing Christian residents and attendings in local hospitals, participating in Christian clinics connected to a church organization, working with medical missionaries in an international program, or personally developing a specific, sustainable program that combines faith and medicine.  In all of these scenarios, the practicum seeks to develop spiritual and professional integrity within the life of a fellow by providing opportunities to experience, reflect, and work with mentors who will embody the essence of living one’s faith within a medical context.

Communal Living

Living within community is a key component of spiritual formation.  Generally we expect that fellows will live within the Longwood Christian Community located in a cluster of townhouses in Boston's Longwood medical area.  The Fellow's Program does recognize exceptions to this general guideline working on a case-by-case basis depending on the fellow's circumstances.

See the bios of this year's exceptional fellows:

Mark Henry

Jamey Snell

Tom Stafford

a.  Please type your responses as a single Word document.  Each response should be single-spaced.  We realize it is difficult to address these topics concisely, however, it is necessary that you limit your responses to 400 words per question.

b.  Essay questions should be emailed to application@faithandmedicine.or g by May 15.

c.  In addition to the essay document, please also attach an updated CV and contact information (telephone & email) of three references, at least one reference being a pastor of your church

Essay Questions

1.  Write a personal statement of your Christian faith (what you believe).  Explain the significance of your faith in Jesus Christ to your everyday life.  Be sure to describe your involvement in a local church, and give examples of opportunities you have had to demonstrate and share your faith.
 

2.  Briefly outline what you currently understand as your calling or vocational goals in medicine (specialty, practice setting, activism, research or scholarly activity, etc.).  Reflect on how your Christian faith informs these goals? Describe the factors that have motivated you to pursue your vocation.  Include the role the church and individual Christians have played in your efforts to integrate faith, learning, and vocation.
 

3.  How do you see your particular calling in medicine making a contribution to society at large?  How do you perceive that this calling is strategic to the Kingdom of God?  Do you feel this path is one that is either ignored or under-represented by Christians?  How do you want to make a difference in this calling as a leader for Christ?
 

4.  What challenges to your faith, if any, have you experienced during your medical education or training?  What questions have these challenges brought to you? (About medicine, healing, society, Scripture, the church, your faith, or yourself)
 

5.  How would you like to be better prepared to enter into your profession in regards to your knowledge or experience in terms of your calling as a follower of Jesus, as part of the church, and as a physician?
 

6.  Describe the special strengths of the academic program to which you are currently involved.  How has God used this opportunity in your development as a leader?
 

7.  Please state anything else that is important for us to know about you. 

Reclaiming the Body

Fall 2006

Boston, MA

John Patrick
March 6-8, 2006
Boston, MA

Boston Area CMDA Winter Retreat
"The Healing of Jesus for Healers"
February 3-5, 2006
Toah Nipi, NH

Faith in Medicine Retreat
August 26-28, 2005
Boston, MA

September 24 (Balboni)
The Nature of Medicine via Creation

October 1 (Pearson)
The Depravity of Medicine via the Fall

October 8 (Balboni)
Holiness: The Church's Connection to the Physical Body and Healing Mission

October 15 (Balboni)
Catholicity: The Church's Push into the Secular Medical Context

October 22 (Pearson)
Apostolicity: The Healing Mission of the Church Grounded in Apostolic Authority

October 29 (Balboni)

Unity:  The Nature of the Church Within Secular Medicial Institutions

** Essay:   "A Practical Church Unity"

November 5:  No Class

November 12 (Martinez)

Medicine and Missions

November 19 (Balboni)

The Why & How of Performing a Spiritual History

November 26 (Balboni)

Evangelism and Loving Neighbor

December 3 (Michel)

Mental Health & the Church:  Knowing the Mind of Christ

December 10 (Pearson)

Salvation:  Healing the Spirit, Soul, and Body

December 17 (Pearson)

How Then Should We Be Well?