Preserving the Penultimate

Preserving the Penultimate brings two of the 20th century’s most renowned Christian thinkers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Albert Schweitzer, into conversation around the emerging possibilities of healthcare. Here Bonhoeffer’s theology meets Schweitzer’s philosophy and praxis to examine the place that healthcare should hold within the Church and its mission. Using the crisis within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom as an example, the insights which these renowned thinkers bring to healthcare are explored.

Is the Church ignoring a part of its mission having retreated from the world of healthcare? Taking Bonhoeffer’s notion of redeeming the penultimate (our present reality), as well as Schweitzer’s emphasis on the practical application of Christian tenets, Preserving the Penultimate courses a path through the overlaps of these two thinkers, ultimately leading to a ‘re-envisioning the praxis of healthcare as theologically central to the mission of the Church.’ As questions around healthcare become more urgent than ever, the role of Christianity to offer alternatives and inspire a broader vision of care is illuminated, considering not only the physical but the spiritual well-being of the person.

Author Biography

The Revd Dr Robert M Jaggs-Fowler CStJ MBBS LLM MA PhD FRCGP FRSA is a Visiting Fellow at St John’s College, Durham University, an Anglican priest, a retired GP, a writer and poet. He holds degrees in the subjects of medicine, medical law and ethics, theology, and philosophy. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal Society of Arts.

The winner of the Lincoln Book Festival Prize for Fiction in 2005 and the Fathom Prize for Poetry in 2010, Robert has published two academic books (‘The Law and Medicine: Friend or Nemesis?’ [2013], and ‘The Healing Enigma: The Physician-Priest in the 21st Century’ [2018]), two collections of poetry, and a novel. He lives in North Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.