WHAT MUST I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE? (LK 10:25): LIFE AS A MEETING-POINT BETWEEN MEDICINE AND PIETY: PASTORAL CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to establish the organic link between medicine and piety in saving life. The desire to live (even forever) is innate in every organism. A random sampling reveals that the definition of life is elusive, yet it is desired by all. Medical interventions aim at overcoming the pang of death. The inability of medicine to conquer death gives way to the consolation theology of eternal life. Hence, medicine and spirituality aim at eternal life. The hospital is therefore not only a place for the health workers, the pastoral worker also has an important role to play since the patient as a person is a composite of body and soul. A historical analysis reveals that the dichotomy between medicine and piety was not there at the beginning. It was an accident of the renaissance. Different pages of the bible contain the interrelation between the physical and theological dimensions of life. The pastoral implication, among others therefore, is that both medicine and pastoral struggle to shed light on the question of what to do to live forever from different though not mutually exclusive angles. The patient therefore should not be seen a battlefield for the duo.