Illness as Interreligious Encounter: A Study from Religiously-Affiliated Hospitals
Wednesday Forum – 12 April 2023
Everyone, regardless of ethnicity, race, religion, and social status, is vulnerable to illness. Illness is a part of universal and inevitable of human fragility. One of main need of people who are ill, is a healthcare service which is generally provided by the hospital. Hence, illness is not only a complex medical and biological analyses that require objective evidence of malfunction at the microscopic level, but illness is also a social event. However, within hospital patients not only get healthcare service patients but that moment also potentially exposes them to greater diversity. Human encounter within hospital can be more challenging and interesting when the hospital is religiously affiliated hospital, because the religious conviction of the patient and the hospital are the basis for interreligious encounter. What kind of dynamics can occur in interreligious encounters within religiously affiliated hospitals? Can illness as human fragility and encounters within religiously affiliated hospitals strengthen interreligious relations?