BW The Brethren and Medicine

Many of the Brethren and a number of their writers have been members of the medical profession. David Anderson-Berry, and C.J. Davis, called "the good black doctor," are among these. One of the most interesting writers I have run across is Alfred Taylor Schofield. He has written half a dozen books in the field of medicine and religion, particularly nervous diseases, among the thirty-some titles that I have listed. He is a very interesting writer in that he fully accepts the Pauline doctrine of the two natures and works within the framework of Paul's teaching concerning the Christian life. He has one book called The Man and the Mule (London, 1908) in which he discusses the problem of the two natures.

I found him most interesting, however, in connection with his mental work. He was doubtless one of the first Christian psychiatrists. He wrote among other books in the field one called Christian Sanity (London, 1908; new ed., 1926) in which he explains his experience: "As a Christian physician I have for many years exclusively engaged in seeing and trying to help nerve sufferers of all sorts, including large numbers of Christian people who have lost their health through religious excesses of various kinds, or through some morbid forms of religious exercises" (p. ix). As far back as 1901 he wrote a book The Unconscious Mind and shortly afterward one entitled Unconscious Therapeutics, and even before that in 1899 he had written A Study of Faith Healing. In 1909, he wrote Nervousness; a Brief and Popular Review of the Moral Treatment of Disordered Nerves.

I contacted the Los Angeles County Medical Library and the Medical Library of the University of Southern California, and neither of these knew anything about this man or had any of his works. This is just another of those tantalizing lacunae in religious bibliography that challenges me. I should state, however, that the Library of Congress has covered this man's writings by printed cards astonishingly well... I counted 28 cards available on him.

Next chapter is a paragraph on Brethren writers on BW Christian Education

• Or would you rather go back to Brethren Writers Table of Contents

Also see: Who’s Who in Medicine for a list of Brethren in the medical field.