Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

On February 17, 2024 Dr. Andrew Michel, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Belmont University, presented "Toward a Neo-Salesian Spirituality for Students of Medicine." In it, he hopes that DeSales, the doctor of divine love, might inflame a Neo-Saleisan Pentecost in contemporary medicine. He invites healers to take a posture of humility and others-centered surrender in their practice of healing. In so doing, healers could also become agents of social change sent out as apostles into the contemporary healthcare ecosystem. He goes on, "In the solidarity of missional friendship, such a Neo-Salesian physician-apostle might reawaken justice alongside healing in a land parched and fragmented by inequities, caught up in the spirit of a neocapitalist age that has forgotten the true ends of healing and wholeness for all people. In becoming physician-apostolates in these secular spaces, each Neo-Salesian medical practitioner would be a little brother or sister of Jesus of Nazareth–heart on fire, with divine love, in mission to reenchant medicine like yeast worked all through the dough." Andrew Michel, M.D. is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Integrated Medical Education at the Frist College of Medicine at Belmont University, where he currently serves as the curriculum committee chair. Dr. Michel earned his M.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program; Dr. Michel is a board-certified psychiatrist. Dr. Michel’s scholarship has focused on the interface of philosophy (virtue ethics), theology, contemplative spirituality, and clinical psychiatry. Dr. Michel’s academic ventures are heavily informed by clinical experience in caring for persons who suffer with a range of mental health challenges, including trauma, addiction, and disruptions of mood and cognition. Dr. Michel’s style of practice has a contemplative foundation, centered in being deeply present in solidarity with persons who suffer with psychiatric illness, with the aim of healing and flourishing in the context of vulnerability.

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 "To Change the World of Medicine: Lawndale Christian Health Center as a Model of Faithful Presence" with Dr. Wayne Detmer. In this webinar, Dr. Detmer shares a vision of medicine rooted in the love of Jesus, by promoting wellness and providing quality, affordable healthcare–a model actualized in the Lawndale community in Chicago. Dr. Detmer is Chief Clinical Officer, Operations at Lawndale Christian Health Center.

On Friday, February 2, 2024, TMC hosted Finnegan-Hosey for this virtual seminar titled, "Stewarding Sacred Stories: A Shared Vocation." David is the author of "Christ on the Psych Ward" and "Grace is a Pre-Existing Condition: Faith, Systems, and Mental Healthcare." He currently serves as the minister of Bon Air Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), having previously worked in a variety of campus ministry, non-profit, and congregational settings. He holds an M.Div. from Wesley Theological Seminary and a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

In this TMC Seminar from November 10, 2023, Dr. John Hardt, Vice Dean of Professional Formation and Associate Professor of Bioethics in Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine offers reflections on how Christians in healthcare might understand the construct of time differently in their daily lives and work.

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) welcomed Dr. Elaine Eng for this virtual seminar on October 27, 2023. Elaine Eng, M.D., is a graduate of Princeton University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a professor of mental health counseling who integrates faith, medicine, and psychology in her international and local work as an educator, psychiatrist, and author. Dr. Eng was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in hear adulthood. Her impending blindness meant that she would no longer be able to practice as an obstetrician/gynecologist. Dr. Eng shares a compelling story of faith and commitment to medicine amidst adversity in this virtual seminar. Dr. Eng's books include "The Transforming Power of Story: How Telling Your Story Brings Hope to Others and Healing to Yourself," and "A Christian Approach to Overcoming Disability: A Doctor's Story."

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) welcomed Dr. Tonya Armstrong for this virtual seminar on September 22, 2023. Dr. Tonya Armstrong is an international speaker, health and wellness entrepreneur, psychology expert and consultant, author, and singer/songwriter. After seven years in academia and solo, part-time practice, Dr. Armstrong launched The Armstrong Center for Hope, a behavioral health practice centering psychological and spiritual wellness for clients all ages. Dr. Armstrong shares more about her work in this seminar.

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) welcomed Dr. Brewer Eberly for this virtual seminar on September 8, 2023. He is a third-generation family physician at Fischer Clinic in Raleigh, NC, and a McDonald Agape Fellow in the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School. He completed his family medicine residency and chief residency at AnMed Health in Anderson, SC. Dr. Eberly has been published widely, including JAMA, the New Atlantis, and Christianity Today, with artwork on the cover of Academic Medicine and in the AMA Journal of Ethics. While the majority of his work is caring for his patients, his writing and research is rooted in the intersections of medicine, aesthetics, and Christian theology, with a particular eye toward medical trainee formation, the relationship between beauty and ethics, and the nourishment of weary clinicians.

Dr. James Rusthoven is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University, and Research Fellow in the Kirby Lang Center for Public Theology in Cambridge. He is known for his contributions to the field of medical oncology and bioethics. Dr. Rusthoven joined the Theology, Medicine, and Culture in Spring of 2023 for this virtual seminar, "Living Out an Intentional Theology of Faithful Presence in Medicine."

Dr. Daisey Dowell specializes in Pediatrics for Lawndale Christian Health Center on Chicago's Westside. In addition to serving as a domestic medical missionary at Lawndale, she also serves as a foreign medical missionary to Haiti as part of El Shaddai Ministry’s, “Haiti Orphan Project” -- where she serves along with other medical and nonmedical personnel to bring medical care along with the Gospel, to orphanages and their surrounding communities in the more remote areas of Haiti. Dr. Dowell joined the Theology, Medicine, and Culture virtual seminar series in Spring 2023 to off this seminar, "'Many Are Called…' Medicine As Ministry to Poor and Marginalized Communities."

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke Divinity School and the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at Duke held a seminar entitled "Can We Live Together: The Crisis of Journalism In America" on February 17th, 2023 with Emma Green. Emma Green is an American journalist and writer for The New Yorker. In November 2021, she was named a staff writer for the magazine, covering topics of academia and cultural conflicts in education. Green formerly worked as a staff writer and managing editor for The Atlantic, where she covered religion and politics.