Medical Mission

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Medical Mission ( English Medical Evangelism ) describes the Christian missionary method of establishing contact with people through sanitary and medical offers. Further contacts should encourage people to change their religion. The aim is to maintain or improve people's livelihoods and to convey the gospel to them.

history

Medical mission developed from an initially purely evangelistic mission. Missionaries always came into contact with people from disadvantaged backgrounds very quickly. Out of Christian charity and often also out of concern for the newly converted Christians, who often left their social networks to join the missionaries, the need arose to provide practical help. The western perspective on the "poor pagans" reinforced the humanitarian orientation of missionaries. Hudson Taylor prepared for his work in China by studying medicine, and the dangerous illnesses suffered by many missionaries also had an effect back in their home countries. At the end of 1898, Paul Lechler and Eugen Liebendörfer founded an association for medical missions as an aid organization for the Basel Mission . First experiences were gained in Sawyerpuram . After further discussions and discussions, a separate German institute was set up in 1906 with the German Institute for Medical Mission (DIfÄM) . According to the English model, doctors and nurses who leave the country, as well as theologians from the mission societies, should be prepared for their stay abroad and trained in tropical medicine or imparted basic medical knowledge to them. The tropical clinics, such as the Paul Lechler Hospital Tropical Clinic, developed from the specialized medical wards of the mission societies .

In the German-speaking area, the "Medical Mission" has for the most part separated from the evangelistic approach and struggles to improve people's lives on the basis of Christian values . The best- known examples of this are the Christoffel Blindenmission and the work of Ruth Pfau .

In the English-speaking world, "Medical Evangelism" is still taken for granted as a branch of evangelistic missionary work, e.g. B. carried out as part of so-called "tent maker programs". A side effect is often that missionaries who work as doctors are more financially independent.

With the hippopotamus stories by Paul White, this missionary method even experienced a literary perpetuation.

Theological foundations

The oldest model for medical missions in connection with Christian propaganda can be found in the Bible. Already the prophets of the Old Testament ( 2 Kings 5, LUT  EU ) used healings to prove God's power. Various healing stories have been handed down from Jesus himself and in ( Mt 10.1-7  LUT ) the disciples are sent out with the commission to heal. This tendency runs through, the Acts of the Apostles tells various healings of the disciples, whereby it is mostly about spiritual healing and the saints literature is also full of healing stories. A literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount literally compels active charity , which is why certain orders in the Catholic Church were always affine towards the care of the sick, including the Franciscans and the Missionaries of Charity . In this context, the Orthodox churches especially revere the Anargyri .

Magazines

  • Hermann Feldmann (Ed.): The medical mission. Sheets for the promotion of German mission medical endeavors. Year 6–8. 1911-1913. At the same time organ of the German Institute for Medical Missions and the German Associations for Medical Missions. Hardback edition. Bertelsmann 1911.

literature

  • Christoffer H. Grundmann : Sent to heal! Appearance and development of the medical mission in the nineteenth century , Gütersloher Verl.-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1992 (Missionswissenschaftliche Studien, NS Volume 26), ISBN 978-3-579-00246-0 .
  • Edward H. Hume: On a medical mission. The life of an American doctor in China. Democratic printing u. Verl. Ges., Linz 1949.
  • Paul White: Hippo Stories. Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-86699-113-2 .
  • Rudolf Walter (Ed.), Ruth Pfau: The last word will be love. A life against indifference. (HERDER Spektrum) Paperback, 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-05172-2 .

Web links

  • Homepage of the German Institute for Medical Mission (see above all the history page).