Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

In the profession of medicine and the current world where demands on our attention are many and constant. John Hardt, Vice Dean of Professional Formation and Associate Professor of Bioethics at Loyola University of Chicago, is the co-director of the Physician's Vocation Program. The program teaches on virtue, character, and calling in medicine, reflecting on religious themes in medicine through the practices of St. Ignatius. In this TMC seminar, Dr. Hardt discusses the program, which serves as a training ground for attending to God’s love for us and his presence in our lives. In so doing, it works to seed the practice of medicine with physicians who have a deep sense of purpose, a joyful spirit, and a commitment to the practice of medicine as an act of service, compassion, and healing.

"Many Are Called…-’ Medicine As Ministry to Poor and Marginalized Communities" with Daisey Dowell, MD by Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

TMC Seminar Series Health Equity Is Not a Spectator Sport- A Radical Rerooting Using a Three Trees Analogy- by Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

Dr. Aasim Padela discusses the foundations of Islamic bioethical discourse based on the various moral sciences of the Islamic tradition. He touches upon aspects of the discourse in orienting the audience to its siloed nature. The talk will conclude with a discussion on how an Islamic bioethics may intersect with academic bioethics as a field. Dr. Padela is Professor & Vice Chair of Research, Emergency Medicine and Professor of Bioethics & Medical Humanities, Medical College of Wisconsin. Originally aired on Friday, February 7, 2025 as part of TMC virtual seminar series.

Susan Eastman, M.Div., Ph.D., is Associate Research Professor Emerita of New Testament, Duke Divinity School. She presented "Christian Flourishing and Reimagining Healthcare: An End to Magical Thinking" for the TMC Virtual Seminar Series on January 24, 2025. "Magical thinking" is "if-then" thinking, which plays an important role in medical research and care, but falters in the face of mystery and the infinite diversity of human beings, and leads to a truncated version of human "flourishing." Christian thinking is "because-therefore" -- because God in Christ has entered into the depths of what is humanly unfixable, therefore we can articulate a vision of flourishing that includes even failure and finitude, and acknowledges the mysteries that elude our grasp. We will probe the differences such a reframing of "flourishing" might make for the care of persons.

On September 27, 2024, Dr. Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD was in conversation with Jessica Coblentz, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Theology at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. Dr. Coblentz's research and teaching focus on Catholic systematic theology, feminist theologies, and mental health in theological perspective. Her book is "Dust in the Blood: A Theology of Life with Depression."

Dr. Annie Friedrich joined TMC for a virtual seminar on Friday, October 11th, 2024. Dr. Friedrich is an Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities in the Institute for Health & Equity at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She received her PhD in Health Care Ethics from Saint Louis University with a focus on clinical ethics, pediatric ethics, and empirical research methods. She is a certified clinical ethics consultant (HEC-C) and is the co-chair of the ethics committee at Children’s Wisconsin, in addition to serving on other affiliated ethics committees. She is also an ethics educator and teaches bioethics to medical students, graduate students, and other health professionals. This seminar, titled "Flourishing in the Cracks: Cultivating Moral Resilience in the Midst of Moral Distress," explores moral complexity, confusion, uncertainty, and distress as inevitable features of the healthcare system. Leaving this distress unacknowledged and unresolved can lead to frustration, lack of meaning in work, and burnout. In this presentation, Dr. Friedrich examines the moral and spiritual dimensions of wellbeing and burnout, with a particular focus on factors contributing to moral distress, and will discuss how we can build flourishing, morally resilient communities for both patients and practitioners.

A problem plagues modern healthcare: machines are setting the standard of care, and human clinicians are struggling to keep up. Artificial intelligence will only make this worse. The technical mindset fragments patient care and draws us further from shalom even as pursue surrogate markers that are meant to restore health. How can we, as Christian clinicians, respond wisely and well to this problem? One response is found in the story of the God's people in the Bible, specifically in the story of Israel's adoption into the family of God. The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke Divinity School and the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at Duke co-sponsored this seminar entitled "The Uncanny Valley: Remaining Human in Healthcare" on November 8, 2024 with Dr. Joshua Briscoe. Joshua Briscoe, MD is a Hospice and Palliative Care physician at the Durham VA Medical Center where he also serves on the Ethics Consultation Service. He's an assistant professor of Medicine and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, and faculty associate with the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine. He writes about issues at the intersection of medicine, technology, and moral formation in a monthly newsletter entitled Notes from a Family Meeting.

Dr. Matthew Rubach, Associate Professor in the School of Medicine & Associate Research Professor in the Global Health Institute at Duke, offered a TMC seminar in March, 2024. Dr. Rubach is a specialist in clinical infectious diseases with medical specialty training in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Medical Microbiology. Since November 2015, he has been based full-time as a clinical researcher and clinician in Moshi, Tanzania where he serves as Co-Director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC)-Duke Health Collaboration. He conducts clinical research on causes of severe febrile illness, sepsis management, vascular pathology of severe malaria, and zoonotic disease epidemiology. In addition to clinical research, he serves as Medical Director of the laboratory that supports clinical investigation at KCMC and he provides medical care & training in the HIV clinic and Medical Ward of KCMC. In this TMC seminar, "Colonialism, Global Health & Catholic Social Teaching: Notes from a Decade at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre," Dr. Rubach presents his work and experience at KCMC through the lens of Catholic social teaching.

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke Divinity School hosted this TMC seminar, "Whose Body is This: A Theological Anthropology for the Care of the Sick and Dying" on March 1, 2024. The Reverend Dr. Esther E. Acolatse is a professor of pastoral theology and world Christianity at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She has wealth of experience in teaching and academic scholarship at the intersection of psychology and Christian thought in aid of human flourishing, with interests in the gendered body, cultural anthropological dimensions of medicine, health, and healing, and their implications for suffering, death, dying, and care at the end of life.