Basil: Long Rules, Q. 55 Whether recourse to the medical art is in keeping with the practice of piety (i.e. Should Christians Go to Doctors?)
Q. 55. Whether recourse to the medical art is in keeping with the practice of piety
[Or to put it another way, Should believing, Kingdom-oriented Christians depend in any way on medical doctors and their treatments?
Or even more simply, Should Christians go to doctors?
And given the trends in modern, Western medicine with its reductive approach to the understanding of the person, separating out almost entirely the vital reality of the soul and spirit, this question may actually be even more reasonable now than at the time when Basil composed his Long Rules.]
You can find a reading of the below text here (along with many other selections from the Church Fathers).
Three key paragraphs as an introduction to Basil’s response to this question with his entire response further below:
The same is true, also, of the medical art. In as much as our body is susceptible to various hurts, some attacking from without and some from within by reason of the food we eat, and since the body suffers affliction from both excess and deficiency, the medical art has been vouchsafed us by God, who directs our whole life, as a model for the cure of the soul, to guide us in the removal of what is superfluous and in the addition of what is lacking.
Whatever requires an undue amount of thought or trouble or involves a large expenditure of effort and causes our whole life to revolve, as it were, around solicitude for the flesh must be avoided by Christians. Consequently, we must take great care to employ this medical art, if it should be necessary, not as making it wholly accountable for our state of health or illness, but as redounding to the glory of God and as a parallel to the care given the soul. In the event that medicine should fail to help, we should not place all hope for the relief of our distress in this art, but we should rest assured that He will not allow us to be tried above that which we are able to bear.
Just as in those days the Lord sometimes made clay, and anointed, and bade wash in Siloe, and on other occasions was content with the mere command: 'I will, be thou made clean, [John 9:6-7; Matt. 8.3] whereas He left some to struggle against their afflictions, rendering them more worthy of reward by trial, so it also is with us. He sometimes cures us secretly and without visible means when He judges this mode of treatment beneficial to our souls; and again He wills that we use material remedies for our ills, either to instil in us by the prolonged nature of the cure an abiding remembrance of the favor received, or, as I have said, to provide an example for the proper care of the soul.
The Full Response
Each of the arts is God's gift to us, remedying the deficiencies of nature, as, for example, agriculture, since the produce which the earth bears of itself would not suffice to provide for our needs; the art of weaving, since the use of clothing is necessary for decency's sake and for protection from the wind; and, similarly, for the art of building. The same is true, also, of the medical art. In as much as our body is susceptible to various hurts, some attacking from without and some from within by reason of the food we eat, and since the body suffers affliction from both excess and deficiency, the medical art has been vouchsafed us by God, who directs our whole life, as a model for the cure of the soul, to guide us in the removal of what is superfluous and in the addition of what is lacking. Just as we would have no need of the farmer's labor and toil if we were living amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case, by God's gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall.
After our banishment to this place, however, and after we had heard the words: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread,' through prolonged effort and hard labor in tilling the soil we devised the art of agriculture for the alleviation of the miseries which followed the curse, God vouchsafing us the knowledge and understanding of this art. And, when we were commanded to return to the earth whence we had been taken and were united with the pain-ridden flesh doomed to destruction because of sin and, for the same reason, also subject to disease, the medical art was given to us to relieve the sick, in some degree at least.
Now, the herbs which are the specifics for each malady do not grow out of the earth spontaneously; it is evidently the will of the Creator that they should be brought forth out of the soil to serve our need. Therefore, the obtaining of that natural virtue which is in the roots and flowers, leaves, fruits, and juices, or in such metals or products of the sea as are found especially suitable for bodily health, is to be viewed in the same way as the procuring of food and drink. Whatever requires an undue amount of thought or trouble or involves a large expenditure of effort and causes our whole life to revolve, as it were, around solicitude for the flesh must be avoided by Christians.
Consequently, we must take great care to employ this medical art, if it should be necessary, not as making it wholly accountable for our state of health or illness, but as redounding to the glory of God and as a parallel to the care given the soul. In the event that medicine should fail to help, we should not place all hope for the relief of our distress in this art, but we should rest assured that He will not allow us to be tried above that which we are able to bear.
Just as in those days the Lord sometimes made clay, and anointed, and bade wash in Siloe, and on other occasions was content with the mere command: 'I will, be thou made clean, [John 9:6-7; Matt. 8.3] whereas He left some to struggle against their afflictions, rendering them more worthy of reward by trial, so it also is with us. He sometimes cures us secretly and without visible means when He judges this mode of treatment beneficial to our souls; and again He wills that we use material remedies for our ills, either to instil in us by the prolonged nature of the cure an abiding remembrance of the favor received, or, as I have said, to provide an example for the proper care of the soul.
As in the case of the flesh it is essential to eliminate foreign elements and add whatever is wanting, so also, where the soul is concerned, it behooves us to rid ourselves of that which is alien to it and take unto ourselves that which is in accordance with its nature; for 'God made man right, [Ecc. 7:30] and He created us for good works that we might walk in them. Moreover, as in using the medical art we submit to cutting, burning, and the taking of bitter medicines for the cure of the body, so, also, in caring for our souls we must heal them by accepting the cut of the reproachful word and the bitter medicine of penalties.
The prophetic writings, furthermore, utter this remonstrance to those who have not received admonition: 'Is there no balm in Gilead? or is there no physician there? Why then hath not the health of the daughter of my people gone up? [Jer. 8:22] The fact, also, that chronic illnesses persist over a long period and despite varied and painful remedies is a sign that we should amend the sins of the soul by assiduous prayer, prolonged penance, and the severe disciplinary treatment which reason may advise as adequate for the cure.
Nor, because some sinners do not make good use of the art of medicine, should we repudiate all the advantages to be derived from it; for we need not straightway condemn all the arts together merely because undisciplined pleasureseekers abuse the art of cookery, or baking, or weaving, for the purpose of ministering to their own delight, by overstepping the limits of what is strictly necessary. On the contrary, their abuse of these arts ought to be made evident by our demonstrating the proper use of them. Similarly with the medical art we ought not commit outrage against a gift of God by putting it to bad use. To place the hope of one's health in the hands of the doctor is the act of an irrational animal.
This, nevertheless, is what we observe in the case of certain unhappy persons who do not hesitate to call their doctors their saviors. Yet, to reject entirely the benefits to be derived from this art is the sign of a pettish nature. Just as Ezechias did not regard the lump of figs as a primary cause of his regaining his health [2 Kings 20:7] and did not consider this fruit responsible for the cure of his body, but gave glory to God and added thanksgiving for the creation of the figs, so, also, when we suffer the blows of calamity at the hands of God, who directs our life with goodness and wisdom, we first ask of Him understanding of the reason He has inflicted the blows; second, deliverance from our pains or patient endurance of them, to the end that, with the temptation,
He may also grant issue so we may be able to bear it. [1 Cor. 10:13] When the favor of a cure is granted us, whether by means of wine mixed with oil, as in the case of the man who fell among the robbers, [Luke 10:34] or through figs, as with Ezechias, we are to receive it with thanksgiving. Besides, we shall view the watchful care of God impartially, whether it comes to us from some invisible source or by a physical agency, the latter, indeed, frequently engendering in us a livelier perception of the favor as coming from the hands of God. Very often, also, the diseases which we contracted were for our correction and the painful remedies we were obliged to submit to formed part of the instruction.
Right reason dictates, therefore, that we demur neither at cutting nor at burning, nor at the pains caused by bitter and disagreeable medicines, nor at abstinence from food, nor at a strict regimen, nor at being forced to refrain from that which is hurtful. Nevertheless, we should keep as our objective (again I say it), our spiritual benefit, in as much as the care of the soul is being taught in the guise of an analogy. There is no small danger, however, that we will fall into the error of thinking that every kind of suffering requires medical relief. Not all sicknesses for whose treatment we observe medicine to be occasionally beneficial arise from natural causes, whether from faulty diet or from any other physical origin. Illness is often a punishment for sin imposed for our conversion;
'For whom the Lord loveth,’ says the Scripture, 'he chastiseth' [Prov. 3:12]; again:
‘Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you and many sleep. But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But whilst we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord that we be not condemned with the world.’ [1 Cor. 11:30-32]
Consequently, when we who belong to this class have recognized our transgressions, we should bear in silence and without recourse to medicine all the afflictions which come to us, in accordance with the words: 'I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him.' [Mic. 7:9] We should, moreover, give proof of our amendment by bringing forth fruits worthy of penance, [Luke 3:8] remembering the words of the Lord : 'Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more lest some worse thing happen to thee. [John 5:14]
Sometimes, also, sickness afflicts us at the request of the Evil One--our benevolent Master, condescending to enter into combat with him as if he were a mighty adversary and confounding his boasts by the heroic patience of His servants. This we learn in the case of Job. [Job 2:6]
Then, too, God places those who are able to endure tribulation even unto death before the weak as their model. Lazarus, fcr example, although afflicted with such painful wounds, never brought a charge against the rich man, nor made any request of him, nor became peevish at the condition of things; consequently, he came to rest in Abraham's bosom as one who had accepted misfortunes in his lifetime. [Luke 16:20]
Again, we find another reason for sickness as applying to the saints. In the case of the Apostle, for instance, in order that he might not seem to exceed the limits of human nature and that no one might think him to possess anything exceptional in his nature (this notion the Lycaonians actually entertained and they brought garlands and oxen for sacrifice [Acts 14:12]), he calls attention to his prolonged struggles with an infirmity as a means of demonstrating the fact that he is human. [2 Cor. 12:7]
What profit would there be for such men in having recourse to medicine? Would there not rather be danger that in their solicitude for the body they would be led astray from right reason? Certainly, as was said before, those who have contracted illness by living improperly should make use of the healing of their body as a type and exemplar, so to speak, for the cure of their soul; since abstention from that which is hurtful according to the rules of the medical art, the choosing of what is beneficial, the observance of prescriptions, are of advantage 'to us also [in the spiritual life].
Further, the very transformation of the body from sickness to health should be an incentive to us not to despair of the soul, as if it had not power to be restored again through penance from its sinful state to its proper integrity. So, then, we should neither repudiate this art altogether nor does it behoove us to repose all our confidence in it; but, just as in practicing the art of agriculture we pray God for the fruits, and as we entrust the helm to the pilot in the art of navigation, but implore God that we may end our voyage unharmed by the perils of the sea, so also, when reason allows, we call in the doctor, but we do not leave off hoping in God.
It seems to me, moreover, that the medical art is no small aid to continency. I observe that this art prohibits sensual indulgence, it is opposed to satiety, it forbids as inexpedient an elaborate diet and an exaggerated liking for condiments. In general, it regards want as the mother of health, so that even in this particular its counsel is not without value for us. Therefore, whether we follow the precepts of the medical art or decline to have recourse to them for any of the reasons mentioned above, we should hold to our objective of pleasing God and see to it that the soul's benefit is assured, fulfilling thus the Apostle's precept: ' Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God. [1 Cor. 10:31]