The Medical Encounter as Communion: Medical Humanities, Health Care and the Trinity

This article intends to stimulate interdisciplinary discourse between medical humanities and theology. Focusing on various problems in relation to the medical encounter, it examines insights from different fields of investigation within the realm of medical humanities. Viewing the medical encounter as communion provides the framework for highlighting common concerns in medical humanities and theology as well as spelling out how theology might contribute to an ongoing interdisciplinary discussion and further research. Drawing on insights from trinitarian theology, in particular the notion of perichoresis, it is suggested that theology can help medical humanities to see the relational structure between health professionals and patients with different eyes focusing on notions such as relationality, the virtuous encounter, exclusion and assimilation.