The Gospel of Science
Abstract
Medical missionaries have always been a part of global health. One of their greatest potential assets as global health workers was that they carried with them a spiritual world view that coincided with that of the people they had come to, especially in Africa and Oceana. In the early 19th Century, before medical science had much to offer, some of the medical missionaries recognized these commonalities with the spiritual world view of Africans. However, as medical science grew in effectiveness, the role of spirituality in medicine began to get squeezed out, even for medical missionaries. By the early 20th century their spiritual world view, while still very strong in the religious realm, had been replaced by science in the medical realm. As Christians in global health, we must address this.References
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