Contents

Acknowledgments, xi

INTRODUCTION

-Being a Christian Physician: Does it Make a Difference?, 1

--Notes, 4

1. Virtue-Based Ethics: Natural and Theological, 6

-The natural virtues, 6

-The return to viertue ethics, 14

-The theological virtues, 17

-Principles and the virtues, natural and theological, 23

-Conclusion, 25

-Notes, 25

2. Christian Virtue Ethics, 29

-The internal morality of medicine, 31

-The philosophical status of a charity-based ethic, 32

-Conclusion, 38

-Notes, 39

3. The Virtue of Faith, 42

-The christian physician-historical origins, 45

-Challenges to the hippocratic-christian synthesis, 48

-Faith's influence on practice and ethics, 51

-Notes, 54

4. Hope and Healing, 56

-Hope as a natural phenomenon, 56

-Becoming ill or disabled, 58

-Hope, illness, disease, 59

-Engendering hope, 60

-Religion and hope, 64

-Conclusion: why me?, 68

-Notes, 69

5. Charity: The Ordering Principle of Christian Ethics, 72

-Medical practice and charity: what difference does charity make?, 73

-Charity and the physician-patient relantionship, 80

-Conclusion, 81

-Notes, 82

6. Charity in Action: Compassion and Caring, 84

-Jesus'call to healing, 84

-Sickness in today's world, 85

-Christian compassion, 86

-Compassion in action, 87

-Christian compassion and medical ethics, 88

-Compassion and the healing community, 90

-The relation of caring and curing, 91

-Caring and compassion?, 93

-Conclusion, 96

-Notes, 96

7. Prudential Judgment and Religious Commitment, 99

-Why include religious commitments in ethical decision making?, 101

-How does religious commitment shape moral choice?, 104

-Kthe relantionship of faith and reason in medical decisions, 111

-Peroration, 115

-Notes, 115

8. The Christian Virtues and Autonomy, Beneficence, and Justice, 117

-Autonomy and charity, 118

-Charitable justice, 127

-Conclusion, 134

-Notes, 135

9. The Christian Personalist Physician, 139

-The christian person: embodiment of virtues and principles, 140

-Christian personalism and the christian physician, 143

-Obligations to respect persons in the doctor-patient relantionship, 149

-Conclusion, 153

-Notes, 154

INDEX, 157