Healing Words?

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; 

for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Exodus 20:7 (KJV)

There is a lot of invocation of God’s name in our world of wars.  I am concerned that many of these represent “vainness”.  This is  one of those glittering vices and deadly sins!

“The worst sort of vainglory, however, according to Aquinas and others, occurs when we fail to give due glory to God as the source of our good.   We might call this glorying “in vain,” because in such cases we seek glory for the wrong end, aim, or purpose.”

The religious language we hear has been both overt and covert with narratives of fulfilling biblical prophecy.  It has been and is an underlying justification of  many wars.  These narratives create an illusion of an end that celebrates the winners.  We have all suffered by chasing these phantom ends.

What are those ends we are called to pursue?  We know it and we share it with our siblings in faith:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; 

and what doth the Lord require of thee, 

but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah 6:8 (KJV)

Thanks be to God who continues to call us to a ministry of reconciliation and healing.

Marvin

References

DeYoung, Rebecca Konyndyk. (2020) Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies (p. 51).. Kindle Edition. 

Lischer, R. (2005). The end of words: The language of reconciliation in a culture of violence. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Sacks, J. (2015). Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. Schocken.

Hage, M. L. (2019). Healing Cultures.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2019/06/healing-cultures.html

Smith, J. K. A. (2022). How to Inhabit Time. Brazos Press.

Healing Senses

“Healing Touch"

We are exploring healing at our church this Lenten season.  Part of the challenge is how to address all the dimensions of the healing experience.  I was struck by the reports of all the methods - soups, music, walks, silence, cards, touch, visits, prayer and words of comfort.  It reminded me that healing is mediated by our senses - seeing, hearing, touch, smell, taste and our deeper understanding of these senses.

Those senses and reports of healing seem to somehow integrate these sensations into the deeper understanding we label as healing.   As communities, we ascribe meaning to our experiences that we celebrate together.  This narrative description is finding support in neurobiology in the new field of neurotheology.

For me, the mystery is still present even when we are beginning to understand some of the biologic mechanisms.  What is amazing to me is that all of the senses are part of these healing experiences.

Thanks be to God for our healing senses!

Marvin

References

Hagerty, B. B. (2010). Fingerprints of God: What Science Is Learning About the Brain and Spiritual Experience (Reprint ed.). Riverhead Trade

Miller, L. (2021). The Awakened Brain. Random House.

Newberg, A.B. (2023) Neurotheology: Making Sense of the Brain and Religious Experiences

https://biologos.org/articles/neurotheology-making-sense-of-the-brain-and-religious-experiences

Hyperscanning & Human Connection: Synchronization and the Third Brain with Biologist Nicolás Hinrichs (2025)

https://loveandphilosophy.com/beyond-dichotomy-podcast/interbrain-synchrony-and-human-connection#:~:text=Nico specializes in something called,being in conversation with words.

Newberg, A.B. Neurotheology: (2025) Practical Applications with Regard to Integrative Psychiatry. Curr Psychiatry Rep 27, 105–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-024-01584-3

Photo:

DiBiase,  R. (2017) The Simplest of Remedies: Rediscovering the Experience of Healing

https://share.google/XgvI6AYzqA3GrOoGD

A.I. Healing

 

I was hooked by hearing the author on the Freaknomics podcast, Can A.I. Save Your Life?.  As I read the first part of this new book, A Giant Leap, I felt it captured much of my own "informatics" history.  

Sometimes, I feel the need to skip ahead to the last chapter—but this time, I didn’t!  Perhaps that is why the final chapter of Robert Wachter’s new book, A Giant Leap, is so powerful.  In those pages, we find words like "transcend" and "awe" alongside descriptions of healing.  These are the very experiences that have defined the author’s life as a physician. 

It is also true that barriers and misuse of A.I. are realities that will require correction.  Large Language Models (LLMs) are limited by their training and their real-world applications.  These challenges are realistically addressed in this deep dive into the current state of healthcare delivery. 

What became clearer to me is that healing can be seen as a deep connection of shared stories—which is also the foundation of LLMs.  These digital stories are now connected through new tools that can facilitate who we are called to be.  The computer screen and its demands can be managed more efficiently helping to heal the epidemic of iatrogenic disconnections in healthcare and our world. 

Thank you, Dr. Wachter, for sharing your search and your stories of healing and A.I.!

Marvin

References

Can A.I. Save Your Life?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0CHP5jKiJjfe1I55YX5S7o

Wachter, R. (2026). A Giant Leap. Penguin Group.

Goodwin L, Prather J, Schlitz K, Iannacchione MA, Hage M, Hammond WE, Grzymala-Busse J. Data mining issues for improved birth outcomes. Biomedical  Sciences Instrumentation 34:291-6, 1997

Hage, M. L. (2023). Can AI be a Healing Agent?

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2023/08/can-ai-be-healing-agent.html

Healing Traditions

Sightless Among Miracles, Carter Presidential Center

By R.T. Whalen

Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing; let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder: How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know ,

 From the Mishkan T’filah, “A Prayer for Shabbat”

I just finished a new book by Mark Topazian, Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career.  I have shared many of the same medical experiences and locations of the author.  I was particularly impressed by the extensive notes/references that accompany each chapter and the importance of the “spiritual history”.

There was one chapter in Healing Purpose, Why Jesus Went into Healthcare, that reminded me of another authors similar interest; Health Care, by Amy-Jill Levine in her book, Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians.  These authors from different religious traditions describe complementary understandings of Jesus’s healing and how that can be translated into our current cultures.

While at Kijabe Hospital (2011) in Kenya, I questioned how the Somalia population viewed the Christian activities, beliefs and care at this Christian mission hospital.  The answer given was: “God lives there!”.  For me, it has been in the healing witness in other contexts that have brought meaning to the practice of medicine and deepened my faith.

God, give us eyes to see your healing work in this world,

Marvin

References

Wallen R. T. (1995) Sightless Among Miracles, Carter Presidential Center

https://homepages.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/atlanta/carter/carterwallen.html#:~:text=Sightless Among Miracles.

Mishkan T’filah, “A Prayer for Shabbat”

https://www.godwardweb.org/sightlessamongmi.html

Topazian, M. (2025). Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career. InterVarsity Press.

Levine, A.-J. (2024). Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians. HarperCollins.

Hage, M. L. (2011). Healing on Trial.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/12/healing-on-trial.html

A Healing Birth

Jesus wept.  John 11:35 (NIV)

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; 

and there shall be no more death, 

neither sorrow, nor crying, 

neither shall there be any more pain: 

or the former things are passed away

Revelation 21:4 (KJV)

At the beginning of this advent season, it is easy to take a birth for granted.  That reality was challenged by the news of a stillbirth to a dear Kenyan family and community.  Words were inadequate to express our condolences for their loss and the distance we felt from their reality.

The stillbirth news arrived after a “deep dive” into more current theological understanding of the healings of Jesus.  “Stillbirths” are a missing part of that extensive theological review.  Our common language is challenged as to how we describe these “darkness” events. 

This stillbirth was a reminder of the challenge to my understanding of the nature of healing and the promises of advent.  With advent, we are reminded that a new light will appear and of a time when tears are no more.  

May those who mourn this season of advent see the light in another healing birth.  

Marvin

References

And Jesus Wept

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Jesus_Wept

Henriksen, J.-O., & Sandnes, K. O. (2016). Jesus as Healer. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Hage, M. L., Tetel-Hanks, J., & Bushyhead, A. (1992). When the Bough Breaks--the Blalock’s Story. Duke University Medical Center.

Hage, J (2011) “The God that Weeps” Sermon delivered at Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church on 7/11/2011