Theology of Illness

[Theophan]

Jean-Claude Larchet
The Theology of Illness
SVS Press
1949

Theology of Illness covers, in a sense, the history or biography of illness according to the Bible as understood by the early Church Fathers and Mothers. Soundly theological and packed with quotations from sermons, homilies, and letters by those Fathers and Mothers universally respected and venerated by the undivided Church (1-12th Centuries) and maintained in the contemporary Orthodox Churches.

Larchet does not treat his subject in a cold abstract manner, but rather, as a very personal experience. The illumination of the Holy Spirit in the Fathers expounding this overview of illness uncovers the many layers we all experience at various times in our lives. Though death is the ultimate consequence of illness and degeneration, the book offers encouragement to he or she who suffers by offering spiritual and psychological benefits to the person who takes advantage of his illness.

He discusses man's nature before the degeneration which came about from our primal ancestor's ontological fall while residing in Eden. From that point forward all human beings suffering decay, illness, and death to various degrees. Illness is not selective, attacking some and not others. Every human being will be ill at some point in their lives - and this has to do with Adamic sin and the human condition resultant from it. Not all illness is the direct result of personal sin: "Neither this man nor his father sinned, but this illness is for the glory of God." After correcting His disciples, He then healed the man. Another Gospel account reveals our Lord warning the one just healed: "Go your way and sin no more, less a worse thing happen to you." Some illnesses are the direct result of intentional sinful behavior. Some illness come about simply because we are human. Other illnesses come about unknowingly because of life-style choices, which, when it comes down to it, are sinful, since "all Christians should do all in their power to promote life." However, this is usually unconscious.

After discussing the personal nature of illness, kinds and ways of contracting illness and offering spiritual applications to counter the effects of the fallen and unnatural human nature, first spiritually and maybe physically, he assures us that for "their is no condemnation for those who are in Christ," and we shall one day be reunited with our recreated bodies and never experience pain or suffering again forever and ever.

Lastly Larchet discusses the various opinions of the Fathers and modern Orthodox Theologians regarding the medical sciences and their place in the life of the Christian. He emphasizes the the priestly nature of medical science, but warns that when it is divorced from the Gospel and the spirit, cures and therapies can only go so far. In fact, they can be emotionally trying. We are spiritual as well as physical and notes that throughout the history of the Church a comprehensive approach has usually been recommended.