How an Understanding of the Incarnation Affects the Patient-Physician Relationship

In the Creation account from Genesis 1, man is created in the image and likeness of God, who called physical creation good. With the fall of man, sin entered the world, but God maintains the goodness of creation by the Incarnation. The Incarnation, by perfecting materiality, underscores the importance of humans as embodied beings. This concept is contradicted in the scientific view of the body as a machine. With the mind/body split, the body becomes simply a possession and the consciousness becomes the person. An understanding of the Incarnation, however, negates the view of a person as having a body and instead supports the view of a person as being embodied. This, in turn, helps teach man how to properly interact with and care for other human beings— tasks central to the healthcare field.