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Outreach in the Early Church: Q&A with Gary Ferngren Printer
Friendly VersionEmail This Content   Gary Ferngren, author of
Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity, is Professor of
History at Oregon State University. He discusses the ways that
Christians have practiced compassion toward the sick since the
days of the Early Church. We explore these foundations for
Christian health care in this interview.  John Shorb: Your book
points out that healing was a part of the idea of Christian
philanthropy but that healing was not necessarily, if I have
your thesis correct, one of the major pillars of Christianity in
the Early Church. I think a lot of people might think, and some
scholars would say, that healing is an extraordinary feature of
Christianity compared to other religions. In your book, I read a
different take on that.  Gary Ferngren: Yes, it is a different
take. It has been widely held that Christianity provided a
religion of healing like many