Body and Soul

For centuries Christian churches and monasteries provided almost the only care for the ill or dying. Large sums of money were given by Christians for building hospitals. For example, two London hospitals, St Bartholomew’s (1123) and Guy’s (1741), were both funded by Christians. In 1841 the Edinburgh Medical Mission opened a free dispensary. Andrew Reed, a London minister, founded the Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables in 1854.

Lord Shaftesbury

The hospice movement began largely through the influence of Christians and today there are more than two hundred hospices in Britain. Dame Cicely Saunders founded St Christopher’s Hospice in London in 1967 and has greatly influenced the movement.

In the eighteenth century Christians like William Tuke, and later Lord Shaftesbury and Lord Kinniard, influenced parliament to improve the care of the mentally ill. Andrew Reed opened homes for children with severe learning difficulties and encouraged research into mental disability. The Christian businessman, George Cadbury, built a home for disabled children. In 1860 Thomas Rhodes Armitage, a Christian doctor, founded what we now know as the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Other Christians encouraged schools for the deaf and dumb. Today, Prospects is one Christian charity providing a caring environment for those with leaning disabilities.

Important advances in medical science have been made by men deeply committed to Jesus Christ. For example, Sir Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic procedures into his surgery at a time when half of all patients died from infection; Sir James Simpson discovered chloroform as the first effective anaesthetic, and Professor Arthur Rendle Short pioneered the use of blood transfusions.