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Book Review: Health Care and the Rise of Christianity

Health care in the ancient world should be seen as a social system, with the help of recent developments in medical anthropology. The latter are briefly introduced in critical discussion with writers such as J. J. Pilch and H. C. Kee. Factors to be considered include supposed attitudes of divine beings to the sick, and the social expression of such beliefs; the share of responsibility for ill-health and cure ascribed to those afflicted; the varieties of healing practices; and their cost in money, time and traveL Early Christians are to be seen as providing a recognizable account of illness, a simplified system of prayer to one deity with little or no medicament (oil at most); ready availability in open local communities; and free of charge. All this is to be seen as a significant factor in their missionary expansion, but in no way need it presuppose significant therapeutic success. The emphasis on care as such, rather than on distinctions between miracle, magic and exorcism (discussed helpfully in passing) is very welcome. Less happy is the contrast drawn with contemporary Judaism, where unwarranted stress is laid on Sabbath restrictions and on evidence that some sufferers could make complex appeals to Israel's God along with others. Only some of the evidence adduced (the Levitical system) is accorded warrants for the first century; other matter looks like illustrative padding. More attention might have been paid to the very varied attitudes evinced by pagan contemporaries to health care: for instance, the commonplace (valid or not) that people at large appealed to deities only when the physician seemed unsuccessful (in Cicero, Philo, Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch). We may hope that the discussion will continue, and acknowledge this as a useful start with good notes and bibliography.