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= Medical Missions: = Medical Missions is the term used for (typically) Christian missionary endeavors that involve the administration of medical treatment. As has been common among missionary efforts from the 18th to 20th centuries, medical missions often involves residents of the “Western world” traveling to locales within Asia, Africa, or Latin America.

Background
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ repeatedly calls for his disciples to heal the sick and serve the poor, but also for them to “make disciples of all nations." In striving to obey such commands, Western Christians have debated the nature of proper evangelism, often emphasizing either eschatological, or material realities within missionary efforts. Much of Euro-American Protestantism has emphasized Jesus’ eschatological and soteriological statements in developing theologies that emphasize personal salvation over the provision of material needs. The origins of medical missions are found in a sort of fusion of these two perspectives.

Origins
In the 1830s an American missionary to China named E.C. Bridgman noticed that Western medicine was more effective at removing eye cataracts than Chinese medicine. At his request, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent Dr Peter Parker to China in 1834 as the first Protestant medical missionary. Western medicine provided a means by which Dr. Parker could gain access to parts of Chinese society that were otherwise closed off to missionaries. More American doctors followed suit and, in 1838, founded the world’s first society for medical missions: the Medical Missionary Society of China. In 1841 Dr Parker visited Edinburgh, UK and appealed to a number of the city’s leading doctors. His presentation resulted in the establishment of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society which was the first medical mission society in Europe.

Another example of early medical missionary efforts is found in the work of Dr David Livingstone, the prominent explorer and missionary. Dr Livingstone worked as a medical doctor at the mission station in Kuruman, South Africa beginning in 1841. Livingstone became known for his abilities as a healer, but eventually tired of medical work and doubted its effectiveness as a form of Christian ministry. He ceased to practice medicine and began his exploration of Africa’s interior and fight against the slave trade, for which he is most commonly remembered. Despite Livingstone’s limited practice as a medical missionary, he, like Dr Peter Parker, influenced medical doctors to pursue careers as missionaries. The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society had a relationship with Dr Livingstone from 1858 until his death in 1873.

Legacy of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society
The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society bore its name from 1843 until 2002 when it split into two separate charities: EMMS International and the Nazareth Trust.

EMMS International
Medical missions continue in many parts of the world today. EMMS International is a missions organization that traces its origins back to the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society and credits Dr David Livingstone as an inspiration to their ongoing efforts. According to the EMMS website: “Dr Livingstone continues to be an inspiration to EMMS International. We continue in the footsteps of Livingstone, and those like him, who sought to bring improvements in healthcare along with Christian compassion to some of the world’s poorest communities." EMMS maintains missionary efforts in India, Malawi, Nepal, and parts of the United Kingdom.

The Nazareth Trust
The Nazareth Trust is the organization that runs Nazareth's District General Hospital in Nazareth, Israel. In 1866 the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society began supporting the work of Dr Kaloost Vartan, who had founded a medical dispensary in 1861.

Orientalism in Medical Missions
Historian David Hardiman identifies the lasting orientalist impact of medical missionaries. “The image of the social and cultural malignancy of the ‘Other’ that was propagated and popularised by the missionaries continues to resonate in the West to this day.” The perceived superiority of Western medicine by missionaries perpetuated stereotypes that Western societies were the ‘gold standard’ of civilization. Rationalized understandings of illness and healing were considered more sophisticated and informed than those of non-Enlightenment oriented cultures. Therefore, it was the duty of "informed," "rational," "civilized" westerners, to bring such values to the rest of the world.

Science vs. Spirituality
For Western missionaries, the ‘Christianization’ of a place often meant more than the conversion of its residents. Western, Modern ideologies were commonly imposed upon non-Western societies and the Christian message was conflated with Modern values. Among these values was a rationalized understanding of the cosmos, that seemingly necessitated skepticism about supernatural realities. Efforts to “modernize” or “civilize” went hand in hand with efforts to debunk what missionaries perceived as superstitious and mythological (i.e. irrational) understandings of health and healing.

Role of Language in Medical Missions
Walima Kalusa writes about medical missions in colonial Mwinilunga, Zambia, and illustrates the difficulties that western missionaries had in achieving their goals of transforming the moral understanding of Africans. Kalusa highlights missionaries’ dependence on the linguistic knowledge of Zambian medical auxiliaries as preventing such transformation.

According to Kalusa, “European practitioners of medicine envisaged that vernacular translations [of medical terms] would be drained of ‘pagan’ connotations and loaded with Western notions of medicine and disease.” In the case of Mwinilunga, we see the western assumption that ‘universal truths’ of sickness and disease would reveal themselves through the implementation of western means of healing. Such perspectives, however, dismiss the possibility of different understandings of illness and health. In Mwinilunga, local people attributed supernatural properties to Western medicine, much to the chagrin of missionaries to the area.

Social Gospel vs. True Evangelism
Within Christian communities there has been some debate regarding the role of evangelism within medical missions. As seen in the example of Dr David Livingstone, who questioned efficacy of medical practice as a means of evangelism, it was not uncommon to separate healthcare and proclamation of the gospel as distinct means of obeying the commands of Christ. Hardiman identifies that, "...missionaries in the field became more and more involved in social work, and they often saw this as their authentic life mission. In the process, preaching became secondary." As a result, missionaries commonly received criticism for proclaiming a ‘social gospel’ or a sort of secular humanitarian agenda that undervalued religious proclamation. Debates around these issues continue today.