2024 Summer Conference: May 26 – June 1, 2024
18th Century Enlightenment – Endarkenment
A week-long conference – also known as the Roots of Modern Medicine, held usually the first full week of June – that examines medicine as it is today (especially ethical issues physicians and others in medicine are currently facing);
set against the backdrop of medicine (and its surrounding culture) in a given era of Western history.
Our concern is questions like the following:
- With what principles and moral commitments did Western medicine begin?
- What shape did medicine take in the traditional cultures of Jews, Christians, and Muslims? What ends did it serve there?
- How was that understanding of medicine protected by the flowering of a profoundly Christian civilization?
- As medicine has advanced, over the centuries, vastly increasing its technical powers, what also has it lost?
- Have the idea and the ends of medicine changed?
- How well equipped is medicine, in its 21st-century form, to serve the end it once accepted: caring for the full human being who is ill?
To that end, we examine one period of Western thought each year, taking into account the cultural context of that period in science, religion, philosophy, literature, music) and consider the answers.
The full series of conferences covers Western history from its beginnings to the present century.
The format
The week begins with prayer and worship Sunday evening.
Then for five days (Monday to Friday) we begin each day with worship and a Biblical reflection followed by one lecture/discussion session in the morning and another in the evening.
Afternoons are free.
The Conference winds up with a country get-together on Saturday.
The speakers
Prepared lectures are delivered by professors and professionals in the various disciplines under discussion, most being faculty at Augustine College.
