Aletheia in Ethosland

Author: Andreea-Iulia Someșan
Original publication: Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Bioethica, Vol. 61, Nos. 1–2, December 2016, pp. 127–131
Section: Book Reviews
Original language: Romanian
Translation note: This text is an English translation of the book review originally published in Romanian in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Bioethica (2016). The author prepared this translation for the English-language section of her personal blog, Aletheia in Ethosland.
Original publication: https://studia.reviste.ubbcluj.ro/index.php/subbbioethica/article/view/4461

Book reviewed: Medicii și Biserica, Vol. XIV: Valorile creștine ale educației pentru sănătate [Physicians and the Church, Vol. XIV: Christian Values in Health Education], edited by Professor Mircea Gelu Buta, MD, PhD, Renașterea Publishing House, Bioethics Collection, Cluj-Napoca, 2016, 778 pp.

The blessing offered by His Eminence Andrei, Archbishop of Vad, Feleac and Cluj, Metropolitan of Cluj, Maramureș and Sălaj, for the recently published fourteenth volume of the Physicians and the Church series is accompanied by a Word of Instruction in which the chosen theme is justified by emphasising the importance of religious education in spiritual life, without which the human being would be incomplete, as it is recalled that the philosopher Petre Țuțea stated.

As an introduction to this volume, following the Word of Instruction, Professor Mircea Gelu Buta, MD, PhD, offers a brief presentation titled “The Spirituality of Medical Practice”. This is followed by the reproduction of the address delivered by His Eminence Andrei Andreicuț on the occasion of awarding the “Cross of Transylvania” distinction to Professor Pavel Chirilă, MD, PhD, together with the latter’s speech of thanks. The volume also includes a transcription of the lecture “Abgar, the First Man Healed Through an Image”, delivered by Academician Sorin Dumitrescu. “The Spirituality of Medical Practice” discusses the difficulties physicians encounter in providing effective treatments for illnesses which, theologically speaking, originate in the “Fall into Sin”. Consequently, the following pages emphasise the need for greater attention to the biopsychosocial and spiritual dimensions of healing. In contemporary secularised medicine, there is a perceived need for the silent companionship of those who suffer, just as Job’s friends shared in his suffering for seven days without addressing a single word to him. Academician Sorin Dumitrescu discusses healing through the iconic image as a delegated power. In this context, he presents the story of King Abgar of Edessa. Suffering from the plague and convinced that seeing Christ’s face would heal him, the king entrusted one of his servants with drawing the Saviour’s likeness. When the servant, unable to complete the drawing, expressed his despair, Christ pressed His face against a cloth, leaving His image imprinted upon it. Thus emerged this healing image of the Saviour, not made by human hands, known as Acheiropoietos, which would endure throughout the centuries and serve as a model for subsequent iconic representations. Moving beyond this discussion of the healing representation of the Saviour’s face, the volume comprises six sections addressing the following themes: “The Spiritual Value of Food”, “Therapeutic Patient Education”, “Health Education in Schools”, “The Need for Psychological and/or Spiritual Counselling in Medical Practice”, “Sacred Art: Suffering, Sacrifice and Passion – Artistic and Iconographic Expressions of Christian Art”, and, finally, “Religion in Schools”.

The first of these sections, “The Spiritual Value of Food”, addresses nutrition in the context of contemporary consumerism, within a market characterised by genuine risks arising from methods of food production and processing. The section opens with an article by Professor Dan L. Dumitrașcu, MD, PhD, who discusses the importance of choosing a healthy, balanced diet to maintain health, while also presenting several types of restrictive diets whose effectiveness has not been demonstrated through scientific research. Here, the Church could play an important educational role in encouraging individuals to adopt healthy eating habits. Furthermore, parents should avoid imposing diets on their children that lack the nutrient diversity necessary for healthy development. Besides the dangers associated with restrictive diets, the following article brings eating disorders, namely anorexia and bulimia, into focus. From a spiritual perspective, these two problems are understood as originating in what is called philautia (self-love). In this context, cooperation between priests and psychologists may, according to the spiritual therapeutic tradition specific to Orthodoxy, contribute significantly to recovery from these disorders through a succession of stages combining counselling, confession, prayer and patience. This process concludes only when the patient develops an appropriate understanding of self-love. The social support provided through church attendance may help restore balance among individuals experiencing loneliness during difficult periods associated with eating disorders. Closely related to eating disorders is another pressing problem of contemporary society: consumerism. Several studies in this section indicate that, although contemporary lifestyles encourage convenience foods and heavy use of microwave ovens, analyses of recent decades show a growing interest in healthy eating. This type of diet is also associated with the benefits of socialisation, particularly sharing meals with family, friends, or colleagues. Beyond the role the Church may play in providing appropriate support to help individuals adopt healthy eating habits, it could also have both the capacity and the responsibility to alert public authorities to the possible effects of nutritionally inadequate or genetically modified food, whose negative consequences might become apparent even two or three generations later. This consideration draws upon the observation that the effects of the Dutch famine of 1944–1945, beyond the deaths that occurred at the time, could also be observed among the grandchildren of women who were pregnant during that period.

The following section, “Therapeutic Patient Education”, focuses on topics that highlight the need to educate patients to improve the physician–patient relationship and, ultimately, the quality of healthcare services by aligning them more closely with patients’ expectations. It also discusses the need to provide therapeutic education to patients exhibiting potentially harmful behaviours, including masochism and alcohol and/or other drug abuse or dependence. These problems, associated with individual lifestyles, require specific methods of identification, assessment and treatment. Thus, in the case of masochism, potentially originating in childhood abuse or traumatic experiences associated with tensions surrounding authority within the parental family, the individual is expected to undergo therapy aimed at developing an understanding of the consequences of the behaviour, experiencing the associated sense of shame, and establishing a connection between the behaviour and an unpleasant event that the individual will subsequently attempt to avoid. By contrast, in cases of alcohol or drug abuse or dependence, emphasis is placed on counselling sessions. Initially, clinicians use various tests to identify the presence of such problems in the patient’s life. This is followed by an assessment intended to determine their severity. Based on the information obtained, specific recommendations can be made regarding the most appropriate form of treatment. When necessary, clinicians may also undertake prompt interventions, such as admission to a detoxification unit or referral to a specialised residential treatment centre, if outpatient interventions have proved unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the work does not end at this stage, since longer-term monitoring is necessary, given that “behavioural change is a process that also involves trial and error” (p. 213). However, therapeutic education is not limited to patients exhibiting behavioural disorders. According to the World Health Organisation, it “is designed to help patients acquire or maintain the skills they need to manage their illness optimally” (p. 183), an aspect also addressed in this chapter’s contributions.

The third section of the volume, “Health Education in Schools”, discusses initiatives whose objectives are somewhat analogous to those of therapeutic education, although the focus here is on children and adolescents. Thus, health education primarily seeks to encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours among minors and teach them specific disease-prevention measures. When discussing prevention, it is essential to mention vaccination programmes implemented through close cooperation with educational institutions. Although major problems affect the implementation of Romania’s National Vaccination Schedule, including the lack of domestic vaccine production, statistical evidence indicates that vaccination, alongside antibiotic use, is one of the principal causes of global population growth after 1945 because it effectively combats disease. Two other issues addressed by the papers in this section concern the role of love in raising children and the influence of spirituality or religion on adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behaviour. Regarding child education, Professor Hadrian V. Conțiu, MD, PhD, suggests that children learn what they experience and experience what they learn. Love precedes education and discipline, and a child who is loved is considerably easier to discipline through love. Consequently, the crisis arising between generations when parents withdraw from active involvement in their children’s lives can be remedied only by following the teachings of the Church Fathers, who emphasise the need to approach education through love and to follow the example of Christ. Furthermore, the close relationship adolescents and their parents maintain with the Church and religious life provides a framework that guides adolescents toward behaviours conducive to physical and psychological health, discouraging the development of sexual attitudes and behaviours that conflict with the values adopted and promoted within their religious communities.

The section entitled “The Need for Psychological and/or Spiritual Counselling in Medical Practice” focuses on problems associated with alcohol and drug use, suicidal tendencies and other situations within the field of psychiatry, together with possible therapeutic interventions. Associate Professor Ion Copoeru, PhD, offers a brief presentation on the foundations of research recently conducted in Cluj-Napoca as part of a European project aimed at developing innovative learning activities to support adults recovering from addiction. The article’s central idea is that “addiction reveals the individual’s way of relating to the world, while recovery entails reconnecting with the world” (p. 310). In this context, addiction emerges as a cultural phenomenon associated with a fundamentally different lifestyle in all its complexity: trapped within the lived world, the individual becomes disconnected from everyday reality, and even the capacity to reconnect with it gradually deteriorates. Beyond a contribution offering a brief overview of the major moral theories relevant to bioethics and another examining the spiritual dimensions of art therapy, most articles in this section highlight the potential of religious counselling and the interpretation of patients’ problems through their relationship with Christian Orthodox religion and theology. Social worker Nicoleta Amariei goes so far as to suggest, in her article, a series of actions and activities that could be organised within the Church to provide meaningful support for individuals experiencing substance abuse and/or dependence. Proposed measures include distributing leaflets, displaying relevant posters on church doors and noticeboards, and incorporating themes into sermons that address the consequences of alcohol consumption and other harmful behaviours, while also offering words of encouragement to those struggling with such difficulties. Considering Amariei’s proposals, the role the Church may play, through the very nature of its religious activities, in reinforcing the efforts of counsellors and healthcare professionals during the healing process becomes evident.

As for the fifth section, “Sacred Art: Suffering, Sacrifice and Passion – Artistic and Iconographic Expressions of Christian Art”, its connection with medical practice becomes somewhat obscured by the aesthetic fascination of iconographic representations of martyrdom. Nevertheless, the representation of suffering in Orthodox icons could make certain fragments of the human experience of trauma more visible.

While the third section highlighted the potential of partnerships between clergy and laypeople in developing health education programmes by incorporating a Christian moral perspective, the final section, “Religion in Schools”, places even greater emphasis on the need for education that gives Christian values due consideration. As Father Mihai-Iulian Necula, PhD, argues, the history and enduring values of the Romanian people could never be fully understood without some knowledge of religious values. Furthermore, the introduction of religion into the school curriculum has provided a foundation for opening new avenues of research through recognition of the relationship between spirituality and medical science. Thus, even though physicians may not be able to fully explain or quantify the effects of faith and prayer, their potential benefits as complementary forms of support should not be overlooked. Even when patients do not receive the answer they hope for through prayer, namely the long-awaited recovery, a moral transformation often occurs, and in many cases patients become better able to cope with the difficulties imposed by illness.

The themes in this volume establish a strong connection between education, Christianity, and medicine. In this context, the volume highlights the potential benefits of educational programmes that promote Christian values to develop healthy attitudes and behaviours, with a clear orientation towards prevention. Given the contemporary relevance of the topics discussed, the volume gives readers a clear understanding of the role the Church can play, through the values and models it promotes, in improving social initiatives aimed at maintaining and enhancing public health. At the same time, the volume suggests that, without a connection to Christian values, individuals with weak motivation may easily become vulnerable to harmful behaviours and attitudes, both for themselves and for the communities to which they belong. These may include alcohol or drug abuse and dependence, as well as sexual behaviours considered deviant or suicidal tendencies, situations in which the Church may also make significant contributions to the recovery process.

ANDREEA-IULIA SOMEȘAN

APA Reference

Someșan, A.-I. (2016). Medicii și Biserica vol. XIV: Valorile creștine ale educației pentru sănătate, volum coordonat de Prof. Dr. Mircea Gelu Buta, Editura Renașterea, Colecția Bioetica, Cluj-Napoca 2016, 778 p. [Book Review]. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Bioethica, 61(1–2), 127–131. https://studia.reviste.ubbcluj.ro/index.php/subbbioethica/article/view/4461