Bearing Witness Through Medicine: An Exploratory Study of Attitudes to Service Among Australian Evangelical Christian Doctors

This study explores the attitudes of Australian evangelical Christian doctors to healing, suffering and good practice, using in-depth interviews. Doctors described an intellectualised faith, in which medical care was conceived in itself as a way of bearing witness. The alleviation of suffering, for these doctors, included supporting patients to rediscover purpose and meaning in their lives. There was diversity of opinion about evangelising, with many feeling that this was a contingent activity best conducted outside the consultation. This cohort of doctors, mostly non-denominational, had consciously engaged in work with the poor and marginalised as an expression of their faith.