Science, religion and healing cancer
THE RELATIONSHIP between science and religion is a key area of human thought and an active one in the academy today. Over the last few decades, we have focused on defining that relationship, exploring the doctrine of creation and divine action, yet leaving many areas under-explored. Further, there has been frustration that the work of science and religion remains marginal within the academy, and some have warned of the dangers of not working in a cross-disciplinary way, and of failing to engage with lay people. Michael Fuller, in a paper examining the ways that science and religion might relate in the future, suggested that there might be opportunities when focusing on a practical issue2. In this paper, I present an illustration of this approach: science and religion meeting over a shared interest in cancer. Cancer is an illness which provokes human suffering, not only physically but also psychologically and socially. In what follows, I take the focus to be the human experience of illness, asking whether the experience of suffering has epistemological value in the dialogue between science and religion. The outcomes suggest that such an exercise can produce new insights of value to those suffering and to those caring for them. I will show, using a hermeneutical process suggested by Paul Ricoeur, that new metaphors for cancer can emerge which augment theology and theodicy. This leads to empowerment for those suffering and acts as an aid to storytelling, which is increasingly recognised as a key component of healing. Thus I will argue that the epistemological value of this academic foray lies in genuine human experiences of healing. Indeed, this paper is based on my own healing journey, undertaken following a diagnosis and successful treatment of advanced Hodgkin’s Lymphoma when I was twenty-one. During my training for ordination in the Church of England, and aware that my experience may impact negatively on my ability to pastor, I begin to trace my own story, searching for new language to explore the science of the cancer which had grown in my body.
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Gillian Straine
a priest of the Church of England, is Director of the Guild of Health and St Raphael, an ecumenical charity working in the healing ministry of the Church.