Dr. Emily Smith, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine and Assistant Research Professor of Global Health at Duke University, explores the intersection of faith, science, and global health through the lens of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Dr. Smith reflects on her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic as the voice behind 'Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist,' advocating for compassionate public health. Her presentation weaves data with a call to ethical action from a posture of solidarity and neighborly love rooted in both scientific and faith-based principles. This podcast aired in November, 2022.

"The Science of the Good Samaritan" with Emily R. Smith, PhD

Dr. James Rusthoven is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University, and Research Fellow in the Kirby Lang Center for Public Theology in Cambridge. He is known for his contributions to the field of medical oncology and bioethics. Dr. Rusthoven joined the Theology, Medicine, and Culture in Spring of 2023 for this virtual seminar, "Living Out an Intentional Theology of Faithful Presence in Medicine."

"Living Out an Intentional Theology of Faithful Presence In Medicine" with Dr. James Rusthoven

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) welcomed Dr. Brewer Eberly for this virtual seminar on September 8, 2023. He is a third-generation family physician at Fischer Clinic in Raleigh, NC, and a McDonald Agape Fellow in the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School. He completed his family medicine residency and chief residency at AnMed Health in Anderson, SC. Dr. Eberly has been published widely, including JAMA, the New Atlantis, and Christianity Today, with artwork on the cover of Academic Medicine and in the AMA Journal of Ethics. While the majority of his work is caring for his patients, his writing and research is rooted in the intersections of medicine, aesthetics, and Christian theology, with a particular eye toward medical trainee formation, the relationship between beauty and ethics, and the nourishment of weary clinicians.

"Beauty Will Heal the World" with Brewer Eberly, MD, MACS

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) welcomed Dr. Tonya Armstrong for this virtual seminar on September 22, 2023. Dr. Tonya Armstrong is an international speaker, health and wellness entrepreneur, psychology expert and consultant, author, and singer/songwriter. After seven years in academia and solo, part-time practice, Dr. Armstrong launched The Armstrong Center for Hope, a behavioral health practice centering psychological and spiritual wellness for clients all ages. Dr. Armstrong shares more about her work in this seminar.

"Infusing Hope Amid the Mental Health Crisis" with Dr. Tonya Armstrong

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) welcomed Dr. Elaine Eng for this virtual seminar on October 27, 2023. Elaine Eng, M.D., is a graduate of Princeton University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a professor of mental health counseling who integrates faith, medicine, and psychology in her international and local work as an educator, psychiatrist, and author. Dr. Eng was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in hear adulthood. Her impending blindness meant that she would no longer be able to practice as an obstetrician/gynecologist. Dr. Eng shares a compelling story of faith and commitment to medicine amidst adversity in this virtual seminar. Dr. Eng's books include "The Transforming Power of Story: How Telling Your Story Brings Hope to Others and Healing to Yourself," and "A Christian Approach to Overcoming Disability: A Doctor's Story."

"Pauline Theology, Spiritual Gifts, and the Contemporary Christian Heal" with Dr. Elaine Eng

In this TMC Seminar from November 10, 2023, Dr. John Hardt, Vice Dean of Professional Formation and Associate Professor of Bioethics in Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine offers reflections on how Christians in healthcare might understand the construct of time differently in their daily lives and work.

"Recovering a Christian Sense of Time for Healthcare" with John Hardt, PhD

On Friday, February 2, 2024, TMC hosted Finnegan-Hosey for this virtual seminar titled, "Stewarding Sacred Stories: A Shared Vocation."

David is the author of "Christ on the Psych Ward" and "Grace is a Pre-Existing Condition: Faith, Systems, and Mental Healthcare." He currently serves as the minister of Bon Air Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), having previously worked in a variety of campus ministry, non-profit, and congregational settings. He holds an M.Div. from Wesley Theological Seminary and a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

"Stewarding Sacred Stories: A Shared Vocation" with David Finnegan-Hosey

"To Change the World of Medicine- Lawndale Health Center as a Model of Christian Presence" with Wayne Detmer, MD

On February 17, 2024  Dr. Andrew Michel, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Belmont University, presented "Toward a Neo-Salesian Spirituality for Students of Medicine." In it, he hopes that DeSales, the doctor of divine love, might inflame a Neo-Saleisan Pentecost in contemporary medicine. He invites healers to take a posture of humility and others-centered surrender in their practice of healing. In so doing, healers could also become agents of social change sent out as apostles into the contemporary healthcare ecosystem.

He goes on, "In the solidarity of missional friendship, such a Neo-Salesian physician-apostle might reawaken justice alongside healing in a land parched and fragmented by inequities, caught up in the spirit of a neocapitalist age that has forgotten the true ends of healing and wholeness for all people.

In becoming physician-apostolates in these secular spaces, each Neo-Salesian medical practitioner would be a little brother or sister of Jesus of Nazareth–heart on fire, with divine love, in mission to reenchant medicine like yeast worked all through the dough."

Andrew Michel, M.D. is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Integrated Medical Education at the Frist College of Medicine at Belmont University, where he currently serves as the curriculum committee chair.  Dr. Michel earned his M.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program; Dr. Michel is a board-certified psychiatrist. Dr. Michel’s scholarship has focused on the interface of philosophy (virtue ethics), theology, contemplative spirituality, and clinical psychiatry.  Dr. Michel’s academic ventures are heavily informed by clinical experience in caring for persons who suffer with a range of mental health challenges, including trauma, addiction, and disruptions of mood and cognition.  Dr. Michel’s style of practice has a contemplative foundation, centered in being deeply present in solidarity with persons who suffer with psychiatric illness, with the aim of healing and flourishing in the context of vulnerability.

"-Vive Jésus!- Toward a Neo-salesian Spirituality for Students of Medicine" with Andrew Michel, MD

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke Divinity School hosted this TMC seminar, "Whose Body is This: A Theological Anthropology for the Care of the Sick and Dying" on March 1, 2024. The Reverend Dr. Esther E. Acolatse is a professor of pastoral theology and world Christianity at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She has wealth of experience in teaching and academic scholarship at the intersection of psychology and Christian thought in aid of human flourishing, with interests in the gendered body, cultural anthropological dimensions of medicine, health, and healing, and their implications for suffering, death, dying, and care at the end of life.

"Whose Body is This- A Theological Anthropology for the Care of the Sick and Dying" with Esther Acolatse M.T.S. Ph.D

Dr. Matthew Rubach, Associate Professor in the School of Medicine & Associate Research Professor in the Global Health Institute at Duke, offered a TMC seminar in March, 2024.

Dr. Rubach is a specialist in clinical infectious diseases with medical specialty training in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Medical Microbiology. Since November 2015, he has been based full-time as a clinical researcher and clinician in Moshi, Tanzania where he serves as Co-Director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC)-Duke Health Collaboration. He conducts clinical research on causes of severe febrile illness, sepsis management, vascular pathology of severe malaria, and zoonotic disease epidemiology. In addition to clinical research, he serves as Medical Director of the laboratory that supports clinical investigation at KCMC and he provides medical care & training in the HIV clinic and Medical Ward of KCMC.

In this TMC seminar, "Colonialism, Global Health & Catholic Social Teaching: Notes from a Decade at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre," Dr. Rubach presents his work and experience at KCMC through the lens of Catholic social teaching.

"Colonialism, Global Health, and Catholic Social Teaching- Notes from a Decade at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre" and Matthew Rubach, MD

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative invites participants to reimagine and to reengage contemporary practices of health and medicine in light of Christian tradition and the practices of Christian communities.

"The Science of the Good Samaritan" with Emily R. Smith, PhD

Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

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