Theurgical medicine

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Theurgical medicine is a regulatory term in the history of medicine , medical sociology and ethnology , which is used in the broadest sense for concepts of illness and healing , in which the healing and, in part, the development of illnesses are attributed to the work of supernatural forces and causes.

In the narrower sense, theurgic concepts are distinguished from magical and animistic concepts of this kind in such a way that theurgic medicine is characterized by the idea of ​​a god or gods, while for magical and animistic concepts the concept of demons and spirits as agents of illness and healing are characteristic . Correspondingly, the theurgic healer as a priest- doctor is differentiated from the magician or shaman type. Consecrated places or temples , where the patient undergoes ritual acts in order to recover with divine help, are considered typical healing places .

The terms "priestly" or "temple medicine" are also used as synonyms for theurgical medicine in the narrower sense.

Typical examples of theurgical medicine in the narrower sense are the Imhotep healing cult of the Egyptians and the Asclepius medicine of the Roman Empire, as well as the medicine of the Aztecs and Maya in the indigenous cultures of the New World .

literature

  • Wolfgang U. Eckhart: History of Medicine: Facts, Concepts, Attitudes , 6th edit. Ed., Springer Verlag, Berlin a. a. 2009, pp. 21ff., ISBN 3-540-79215-5
  • Ramón Pardal: Medicina aborigen americana . 1st edition 1937, reprint. Editorial Renacimiento, Sevilla 1998, pp. 236ff., ISBN 84-89371-45-8
  • Robert Jütte : History of Alternative Medicine. From folk medicine to today's unconventional therapies. CH Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN = 3-406-40495-2, pp. 66-114 ( religious and magical medicine ).