Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

"UNHEALED: A Story of Race, Memory, and a Teaching Hospital" with Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD by 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 th...

"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, Emerg...

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...

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...

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 cer...

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...

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 a...

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 sc...

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....

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...

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...

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....

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 behavi...

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. 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 Fai...

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...

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...

Jason Ashe, PhD, ThM, MDiv is a Community Health Psychologist & Research Scientist, whose work explores religion and racism as psychosocial determinants of health. He focuses specifically on cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disorder risk and health inequities among Black Americans. Dr. Ashe is a former Theology, Medicine, and Culture Fellow at Duke Divinity School, and joined us in Sprin...

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 "Health Equity Is Not a Spectator Sport: A Radical Rerooting Using a Three Trees Analogy" on January 19th, 2023 with Abraham Nussbaum, MD. Dr. Nussbaum is Chief Education Officer at Denver Health and a Professor of Psychia...

In Auden’s poem “The Art of Healing,” he writes that “every sickness is a musical problem and every cure a musical solution.” Jazz and health care are two things we normally don’t think about together, let alone in the context of mental health. This conversation was recorded at the 2024 Practice & Presence gathering between theological ethicist Patrick Smith and physician and writer Brewer Eberly....

Dr. Emily Smith, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine and Assistant Research Professor of Global Health at Duke University, explores the intersection of faith, science, and global health through the lens of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Dr. Smith reflects on her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic as the voice behind 'Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist,' advocating for compassionate pu...