The Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) is the official, peer-reviewed journal of the Southern Medical Association. It has a multidisciplinary and inter-professional focus that covers a broad range of topics relevant to physicians and other healthcare specialists.

SMJ // Article

Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project

The Role of Spirituality in Hippocratic Medicine

Authors: Howard Ernest Herrell, MD

Abstract

To anyone studying the role of spirituality in Western medicine, the first few lines of the Hippocratic Oath should be of interest: "I swear by Apollo the Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods, and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant."1The Oath continues to be uniquely respected among practitioners of Western medicine, and the emphasis that the Oath seems to place on spirituality from its onset stimulates inquiry into the nature of spirituality in Hippocratic medicine.

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References

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