Healthcare and Human Flourishing

Healthcare and Human Flourishing

April 3, 2023
6:30 - 8:00 PM
McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall (3rd Floor)
3225 University Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75205

Join the Healthcare and Human Flourishing SMU DCII Research Cluster as Joshua Hordern, Ph.D. speaks on the intersection of healthcare, theology and political philosophy.

This lecture is free and open to the public.  

In a pluralistic democracy, healthcare institutions are the places where our society conducts some of its most profound moral deliberations. When we make treatment decisions for those at the edges of human existence—when humans are coming into and passing out of existence—we are forced to reckon with very basic questions about the good. What is a human? How does our account of human dignity fit into our overall understanding of the universe (is it a dignity that stands out in relief against the canvas of an infinite and meaningless universe; is it a dignity that is perfectly integrated into a meaningful universe that is created and loved by God?). It is in these institutions that we are required to be honest about the beliefs we hold most deeply even when—or especially because—we are committed to cordoning off some of these beliefs in our official political life, in order to build and maintain the conditions for a reasonable and just pluralistic constitutional democracy.

Keynote Speaker: Rev. Prof. Joshua Hordern

Joshua Hordern is Professor of Christian Ethics in the Faculty of Theology and Religion and a Fellow of Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford. He is also an ordained minister in the Church of England. He has worked extensively with colleagues in healthcare on themes such as compassion in healthcare, medical professionalism, vaccine hesitancy and precision medicine. Publications include Compassion in Healthcare: Pilgrimage, Practice and Civic Life (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Advancing Medical Professionalism (Royal College of Physicians, 2018).