Wholeness and Holiness (Paperback)

Description

In this ground-breaking book, distinguished consultant clinical neurophysiologist Michael Glasby turns to the Bible. Did the practices of the Levitical priesthood share any features of ‘public healthcare’? Did they contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and society. Is it the case that the priesthood understood some rudimentary elements of healthcare? Or is this commonly held view merely the result of modern opinion formed (perhaps inappropriately) through an accumulation of later redaction and exegesis?

The Levitical priesthood & healthcare

Glasby examines:

(i) To what extent medicine/healthcare (as we understand it today), had developed in the Ancient Near East (ANE) in general and particularly in ancient Israel.

(ii) The nature of purity/impurity as seen by the Levitical priesthood.

(iii) Provenance and nature of the available textual material.

(iv) Those diseases/quasi-diseases and forms of blemish seen by the priests as causing ritual impurity.

(v) The transmissibility of risk to people, society and sacred objects by the contagious nature of such conditions.

The author had a distinguished medical career, which included his winning the Radcliffe Prize in Surgery from Oxford University. He spent many subsequent years researching nerve degeneration and regeneration and their application to surgical nerve repair. Michael Glasby studied Theology in London University and completed his PhD in Divinity at Edinburgh University. This book represents the fruits of that theological research, combined with the insights of an experienced medical professional.

About the Author:

Michael Glasby, now retired, has held teaching and research posts at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and  London and was latterly Reader in Experimental Neurology in the University of Edinburgh. Most recently he served as Consulting Clinical Neurophysiologist at the Scottish National Spinal Deformity Centre at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh, a Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. Senior Member, The British Society for Surgery of the Hand. Batchelor of Divinity degree (first class honours) from the University of London in 2009 and PhD in Theology from Edinburgh University in 2015.