Preserving the Penultimate: Towards a Church-Led Vision for Healthcare

In this book, Bonhoeffer's theology meets Schweitzer's philosophy and praxis to examine the place that healthcare should hold within the Church and its mission. Using the crisis within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom as an example, the insights which these renowned thinkers bring to healthcare are explored. Is the Church ignoring a part of its mission having retreated from the world of healthcare?

Taking Bonhoeffer's notion of redeeming the penultimate (our present reality), as well as Schweitzer's emphasis on the practical application of Christian tenets, Preserving the Penultimate courses a path through the overlaps of these two thinkers, ultimately leading to a 're-envisioning the praxis of healthcare as theologically central to the mission of the Church.'

As questions around healthcare become more urgent than ever, the role of Christianity to offer alternatives and inspire a broader vision of care is illuminated, considering not only the physical but the spiritual well-being of the person.

About the speaker
The Revd Dr Robert M Jaggs-Fowler CStJ MBBS LLM MA PhD FRCGP FRSA is a Fellow of St John's College and also the Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University. He is a writer and poet, a retired GP, and was ordained as an Anglican priest. His degrees cover the subjects of medicine, medical law and ethics, theology, and philosophy. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal Society of Arts. The winner of the Lincoln Book Festival Prize for Fiction in 2005 and the Fathom Prize for Poetry in 2010, Robert has published three academic books: The Law and Medicine: Friend or Nemesis? (2013), The Healing Enigma: The Physician-Priest in the 21st Century (2018) and Preserving the Penultimate: The Church and Healthcare in the Light of Bonhoeffer’s and Schweitzer’s Theology and Praxis (2026), two collections of poetry, and a novel. He lives in North Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.

The Zoom link will be circulated closer to the event. If you have any access requirements, please get in touch with us at imh.events@durham.ac.uk.

Please note that this event is free to attend.

This event is hosted by the Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing research theme of the Institute for Medical Humanities, led by Loretta Lou, Sitna Quiroz, Adam Powell, Fran Cettl, and Arya Thampuran.