Relational Dependence in a Culture of Self-Creation: A Theological Query into the Health of the Medical World

Half of the medical professionals in the United States are experiencing symptoms of burnout. From the perspective of theological anthropology, this dehumanizing aspect of the field is not reducible to ethical failures, for it is rooted in the radically new worldview known as self-creation. As an implicit denial of Christian understanding of creation, self-creation entails a rejection of relationality and dependence—both proper to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. This article proposes that this lost Christian patrimony is intimately connected to the increasingly unhealthy dependence we place upon modern medicine. Relying on theologian Joseph Ratzinger, we will come to see that a recovery of relational dependence is not only necessary for the salvation of man—but the very health of the medical world at large.