Death and Life in America, Second Edition

Family physician Raymond Downing offers a bold critique of western medicine and sees medical care as one of the fallen “principalities and powers” in need of redemption. But Downing’s hope lies beyond biomedicine—in biblical healing, especially the healing miracles of Jesus. In conversation with the Bible, Ivan Illich, William Stringfellow, Susan Sontag, and others, Downing revisits how Westerners approach medicine. He sees suffering and healing as essentially spiritual experiences at the roots of death and life.

Raymond Downing is an American medical doctor who has spent all of his professional life working in underserved communities, largely in Africa. He is the author of Suffering and Healing in America (2006) and Death and Life in America (2008).