The responsibilization of patients for their disease and care may imply reduced access to medical care or overly moralize the doctor–patient relationship. This article first examines Luther’s early readings of the penitential Psalms, in which he transposes the nexus between sin and disease into the sphere of faith. His subsequent emphasis on the imputation of salvation further diminishes responsibilization: medical and pastoral care become distinct. This will be contrasted with Calvin’s cathartic, forward-looking understanding of disease and with Melanchthon’s moralist merging of humanism and theology into dietetics. These theological tendencies all represent present-day options.
“Is Christ divided?” Reflections on the theological justification of church disunity and church schismIn this article the author investigates the question whether a church schism could ever be justified. He considers on the one hand the Biblical message on church unity and on the other hand the many justifications of church disunity (schism). He concludes that most of these justifications are unacceptable rasionalisations and that Post-Reformation theology distanced itself far away from Biblical ecclesiology in this regard.
Understanding responsibilization in healthcare: Differentiations in Reformation theology
