Faith And Medicine:on The Medical Theory And Practice Of The European Medieval Christian Church

It is said that the Middle Ages were the "dark ages" of social development, because at that time, the Christian Church had ruled all the cultural fields, including the Medicine. However, an increasing number of historical data show that all kinds of modern sciences, under the influence of Christian faith and the Church, had developed in the Middle Ages in Europe, including the Medicine. As a kind of science dealing with human physiology in good condition, the Medicine which included medical theory, treatment practice and medical education had obtained the considerable development with the help of the Christian Church. This paper explores that the Medicine of the Christian Church had built a solid foundation for the development of the modern medicine.This article is divided into four parts:the historical basis of the Medieval Medicine; the medical theory and medical practice of the Christian Church in the Medieval; the medical theology of the Christian Church; the historical status of the medicine of the Christian Church.The first part of the article is the historical basis of the Medieval Medicine, which is about the foundations of the Medieval Medicine. There are three foundations:the Medicine in ancient Greece, the Medicine in ancient Rome and the early Christian Medicine.They provide the foundations for development of the medieval Christian Church Medicine. Of them, the four humors of Hippocrates and Galen and the religious treatment of the Christian Church have profound influence on the Medieval Medicine.The second part of the article is about the medical theory and medical practice of the Christian Church in the Medieval. The development of medical theory included the Internal Medicine, Surgery and Anthropotomy; The development of the medical practice of the Christian Church was classified as four parts:the medical practices of the Priest, the establishment of hospitals, the Knights Hospitaler and the Controlling of Pestilence; The medical education of the Christian Church was divided in two parts: firstly, the collation and translation of the ancient medical books; secondly the medical education of monks.The third part of article is about the medical theology of the Christian Church. Without the medical theology of the Christian Church, the argument of the development of the medicine in medieval is in vain. The medical theology of the Christian Church was mainly manifested in three parts:the theological causes of diseases, the basis of the theological cure, the development of the idea of soul and body.So it is the Christian medical theology that provided the solid foundation for the development of the Medieval Medicine.From the fourth part of the article, we can give the conclusion that the Medieval Medicine of the Christian Church played a role in connecting the past and future development of the Medicine. On the one hand, the Medieval Medicine of the Christian Church inherited the medical tradition of ancient Greek and Roman, making the ancient Greek and Roman medical developing; On the other hand, the Medieval Medicine of the Christian Church laid a solid foundation for the development of the Modern Medicine. While in the Middle Ages, the Christian Church was the only power that had political, economic, and cultural abilities to develop the Medicine. At the same time, the Christianity had abundant resources and excellent talents to develop the Medicine; the social responsibilities of the Christian Church also required to do so. The Christian Church which was a collection of a group of people who fellow Jesus Christ, would had responsibility to follow Jesus Christ to heal the patient’s behavior.