Ten Theology Books to Watch For – October 2022

Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity

Helen Rhee

(Eerdmans)

What did pain and illness mean to early Christians? And how did their approaches to health care compare to those of the ancient Greco-Roman world?

In this wide-ranging interdisciplinary study, Helen Rhee examines how early Christians viewed illness, pain, and health care and how their perspective was influenced both by Judeo-Christian tradition and by the milieu of the larger ancient world. Throughout her analysis, Rhee places the history of medicine, Greco-Roman literature, and ancient philosophy in constructive dialogue with early Christian literature to elucidate early Christians’ understanding, appropriation, and reformulation of Roman and Byzantine conceptions of health and wholeness from the second through the sixth centuries CE.

Utilizing the contemporary field of medical anthropology, Rhee engages illness, pain, and health care as sociocultural matters. Through this and other methodologies, she explores the theological meanings attributed to illness and pain; the religious status of those suffering from these and other afflictions; and the methods, systems, and rituals that Christian individuals, churches, and monasteries devised to care for those who suffered. Rhee’s findings ultimately provide an illuminating glimpse into how Christians began forming a distinct identity—both as part of and apart from their Greco-Roman world.

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Every Body’s Story: 6 Myths About Sex and the Gospel Truth About Marriage and Singleness

Branson Parler

(Zondervan)

Every story entails a way of life and how every way of life implies a big story.

In Every Body’s Story, Branson Parler focuses on three predominant myths of sexuality in our secular age–individualism, romance, and materialism–and three dominant myths in Christian circles–anti-body theology, legalism, and the sexual prosperity gospel–exploring how those stories shape our practice. Our views of sexuality and our practices around sex are never just about sex. How we use and view our bodies reveals who/what we think God is (or is not) and who we are.

If we truly understand the biblical logic of marriage, sexuality, and singleness–that they are meant to embody the gospel–then we will better understand why this witness is so vital. As God’s self-giving faithfulness is put on display by both married and single Christians, those formed by our secular age will have to ask: What if it’s true? What if there’s more? What if God really does love us that much? Rather than viewing our sexuality as an isolated matter of ethics, we can see how the gospel places our sexuality in the context of God’s rescue mission of the world.

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