In our contemporary Western society, the essential role of the physician is generally considered to be one of healer of the sick. Therefore the education and training of the future physician is ...primarily directed towards the goal of curing the physically or mentally diseased person and returning the same to a healthy state. It has, however, been more and more accepted that to avoid such physical and mental dysfunction, preventive measures must be taken which also must include attention to social factors. This was recognized by the World Health Organization, which defined health as “not only the absence of disease, but the complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being.” Critics say that with this definition the physician would assume a dominant role in all aspects of human life and behavior and would become, so to speak, the high priest of society. And indeed, in antiquity and frequently in the Middle Ages, the healers were also the priests and chieftains. How then, through the centuries, has the question of the physician's responsibility and competence for dealing not only with physical and mental diseases, but also with the underlying social causes, been answered?
In ancient Greece, the god of health, Asklepios, had two competing and quarreling daughters, Hygeia and Panakeia. Hygeia was given the role of maintaining health through sound living and “prophylaxis” (hygiene, preventive medicine) while Panakeia was responsible for healing and curing illness (panaceas, curative medicine).1 Originally meant to be equals, visits to her temple, sacrifices for and prayers to Panakeia appear much more frequently in our sources than those for Hygeia, indicating a greater demand by the people for assistance in healing their illnesses than willingness to change their lifestyles or social behavior aimed at avoiding the same. As described by Rosen2: “Health problems have always been intimately related to the political, economic and social conditions of particular groups of people; but in earlier periods these relationships were not the subject of systematic investigation. … Nonetheless, sporadic observations linking social and cultural factors or situations with the health of the members of a community were recorded in antiquity and in medieval times.” However, the imbalance between preventive and curative care persisted, and the healing of illness remained at the center of the physician's activity.
Often fiction and religion have been seen as separate moments or genres, but recent encounters between the two fields - such as fiction-based religions or religious controversies with regard to works ...of fiction - show that a thorough discussion of the religious in the fictional and the fictional in the religious is important. It may be consequential for what we understand religion to be in the study of religions today. The fantasy genre, with its other worlds, magic and superhuman characters, is extremely successful in contemporary Western popular culture. This article discusses the genre of fantasy fiction and analyses how selected examples of contemporary fantasy fiction represent and mediate religion. It argues that fantasy fiction both reflects and forms religious interests and religious fascination in contemporary society, and, in combination with the related new virtual worlds of the supernatural, fantasy fiction, that it provides sites for exploration of religion. This article is not a study of new religious movements, or of locating and analysing classically religious practitioners who use fantasy fiction in religions. Rather, the author seeks to understand the current pervasive presence of religion in fantasy fiction, and to discuss its significance in contemporary Western societies, as well as its implications for the understanding of religion. The author suggests that we should acknowledge, to a greater degree, the extent to which religion can be mixed with commerce, titillating entertainment, shared emotions, and everyday concerns. In addition, the author suggests that we should make more room for partial and shifting religious engagements in religion, and acknowledge a place, in the category of religion, for supernatural popular culture. The current fantasy popularity surge indicates not only a weakening of institutionalised religions, but also of the importance of belief and absolute truth claims in religion, and instead we see an increased visibility of 'the religious' and shifting and partial forms of religion in the West.
