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Theories Of The Four Humors

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Christianity’s framework stemmed from the Judaic religious faith and transformed into one of the most widely practiced religions in the world. According to Ferngren, by the year AD 60, Christianity was a rising new religion founded by Jesus of Nazareth, who is believed to be the Christian Messiah. He was put to death at the hands of those who opposed His religious teachings by crucifixion, and on the third day after His death, He rose from the dead. As a result, Jesus cemented Christians’ faith in His teachings by bringing them hope. During His time on Earth, Jesus preached many of God’s ideas to his disciples, one of which included healing the sick (Ferngren, 2014, pp.73-74). To understand the basis of healing, it first must be understood …show more content…

The theory of the Four Humors, constructed by Hippocrates, is the framework for the elements of the human body, specifically in the blood. Air, fire, water, and earth each correlate to a different function of the body (Engelmajer, 2018, Medieval Europe slides 9-12). A balance between the humors results in the person maintaining good spirits and overall being a healthy person. Alternately, the result of an imbalance of any of the humors is disease. Each humor has its own disease correlated to it, therefore, if there is an overpowering of one humor, this will express that disease through the person (Magiorkinis, 2013, pp. 94-95). For example, fire is associated with yellow bile, so if this humor is overpowering the others it will cause a feeling of overwhelming anger in the person. In summary, the Four Humors all work together to balance to maintain overall health. Moreover, each humor also has its own individual …show more content…

Due to many different interpretations through translation of scriptures, there are many different viewpoints of disease etiology and healing. For this reason, not all Christians believed in the same methods of healing or even how these diseases came about (Amundsen, 1982, pg. 1). Amundsen states that some Christians saw naturalistic as the ultimate cause which contrasted other beliefs that the naturalistic approach was inferior and saw that supernatural powers were the ultimate cause of disease. This shows that Christians were influenced by both personalistic and naturalistic etiologies on disease and health. In summary, although in Christianity not all scriptural texts are translated exactly the same, there is the overlapping viewpoint among Christians that God is the ultimate healer and through Him, disease comes as a result of sin (Amundsen, 1982, pg.

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