You may choose to Agree or Disagree or simply simply say what you found interesting about your classmate’s ideas. To

You may choose to Agree or Disagree or simply simply say what you found interesting about your classmate’s ideas. To begin, I thought one of the most interesting things I learned was in the reading of “Healthcare in the Early Church”. On page 118, it talked about how the only care of the sick and dying during the epidemic of 312-313 was provided by Christan churches. It’s very interesting to hear about how they decided to go about an epidemic considering we are living in one at this very moment. Also, it talked about how for quite some time, palliative care of the sick was the only care available. However, hospitals cared for the soul and the healing of the soul as well as the body. I feel like that is such an important quality that needs to be implemented more nowadays. The goal is to relieve a human’s suffering, but there are many different ways a human can be suffering, and sometimes we seem to forget that. Say for example there is someone in the hospital in ICU or someone who has cancer and will spend every single day for a long amount of time in the hospital; it’s important to not neglect those people who still deserve the attention and still deserve to have a comfortable stay whether these are their last days or not. They need to have more than just a “bearable” time.  Being encouraging and showing support for the soul is very soothing for patients and can really help people get through tough times in general, let alone for people who are in hospitals struggling with some really tough circumstances.In the reading, it was also interesting to read about how for a while, there were very few physicians, which is unimaginable for much of the modern world we live in today. Sometimes, we take for granted the progression in technology and how many physicians and healthcare workers are available now. Back then, Deacons, and a few men who were clinically positioned, cared for the sick on a larger scale. The reading also mentioned how philanthropy was also suited to the first 3 centuries of Christianity. For the Roman government, we see that caring for the poor (a Christian emphasis) became a huge factor in assigning a recognizable role in Roman society to the church. By creating a community in which the members cared for their community, and for those who were not in the community, Christianity was able to be spread even further, as more people began to join the church.In “Byzantine Hospitals” I found it interesting on how Byzantine hospitals developed out of Christian institutions for the poor and homeless, but philanthropy provided the initial impulse to expand these institutions into specialized medical centers. It also created hospices (xenons). In “The Basis of Christian Medical Philanthropy”, I found it interesting how it talked about the idea of the ideal “Christian Physician” who desired to serve God. Compassion became the motivating ideal of the Christian physician. Therefore, they were not just simply doing it for the sake of it or just because they had the qualifications to be a physician when there was a shortage to begin with. Doing it out of compassion is something else that seems to be lacking nowadays that hopefully the next generations can work towards to make this world a better place.