Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age

by Bob Cutillo MD

A Redeemed and Renewed Vision of Health Despite all the care available to us, our society is more concerned about health than ever. Increased technology and access to health care give us the illusion of control but can never deliver us from the limitations of our bodies. But what if our health is a gift to nurture, rather than a possession to protect? Drawing from decades of medical experience in many different contexts, Dr. Bob Cutillo helps us cultivate a biblical understanding of the relationship between faith and health in the modern age, reorienting us to a wiser pursuit of health for the good of all. Weaving in his own story of serving the most vulnerable, he leads us to a bigger view of health care and a hope that is more secure than our physical wellness―hope with the power to transform our communities. Published in partnership with the Gospel Coalition.

Genres: Christian Living, Health, Christian, Medicine, Health Care, Theology, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2016

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book after reading rave reviews about it, but not honestly knowing exactly what to expect. My first assumption was that this was a book about medical ethics, written from a Christian worldview with a foundation firmly rooted in the Bible.

To my delight, this short read was a look at the spiritual and societal aspects of health and healthcare. As a biomedical engineer, my eyes were opened as Dr. Cutillo explained how the increase in medical technology has, on a social level, made us more disconnected from each other as humans and consequently turned us into a mere statistic or a condition in a differential diagnosis, and spiritually, has caused us to focus far more on our earthly lives "making mud pies in the slums" than seeking the eternal "holiday at the sea".

Dr. Cutillo balances out this seemingly poor diagnosis of our view on health with an encouragement to use healthcare as a vehicle to better seek the welfare of others, to bridge the connection between the dichotomy of faith and science, and to ultimately orient your life and the life of others toward the great Healer. Our health and healthcare are amazing blessings from God, but we must not use them to give us an illusion of a sense of control over our lives.

This book was a little too philosophical for me at times, but overall gave a very unique and thought-provoking perspective on health.

[Erin Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars really. It was good but Atul Gwande’s Being Mortal is better. Except for the chapter on the responsibility Christians have to care for the poor and outcast. He made great points about how our healthcare is set up and what Christians should strive to do.

[Nate Cure · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book immensely helpful. As someone who spends most of their time in the world of theology, philosophy, and ethics, within the Christian tradition, I often feel like an outsider looking in on the world of modern medicine proper, and healthcare as a system. Dr. Cutillo proved a helpful guide into this world.

This book is a diving board, sending the reader deeper than the heights from which they started, bringing them quickly to the surface for air and reorientation, and then quickly back into the water for further exploration.

Practically, if you plan on ever meeting with sickness, recovery, and death, and to be present with those who may be farther along that journey than yourself, then this is worth reading.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think the title quite captures the contents of this book. Pursuing 'medicine' feels more fitting, and that's probably just my hyper-fixation on holistic health talking.

I didn't find much of this that helpful as it feels addressed to health workers about the brokenness of the healthcare system and medicine. What I did appreciate, however, was the focus on not separating the patient from their personhood and soul. I think this is the missing spiritual link I was wanting from Casey Mean's book Good Energy, which has much more of a buddhist slant.

Unless you're working in the healthcare sector, I don't think this is a must read.

[Shane Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

2020 reads: 27/52

4.5 stars

This was a timely and edifying read from Dr. (MD) Robert Cutillo.

The book's main focus is about the purpose of health, specifically through a Christian worldview. Cutillo offers sound biblical insights with his own expertise in the medical field. This book is a wonderful blend of compassion and application. Cutillo helpfully exposes how modernist thinking has contributed to our fears regarding health, and encourages the believer to embrace their weakness, vulnerability, and fragility, and to live in community, realizing that we will only be as healthy as our neighbour.

This book will challenge those who are able-bodied, as well as challenge the soft-Gnosticism pervading our churches, and it also calls for medical professionals to see their profession through the lens of the gospel.

I heartily recommend this book.

[Chrys Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith and Medicine

I’m a theology nerd. I love theology books, and I enjoy health books. I’m the crazy guy you know that may be on the paleo, whole 30, ketogenic, gluten-free, etc. diet at any given time throughout the year. I zealously care about my spiritual life and I genuinely care about my physical health. However, as Bob Cutillo made clear in his book Pursuing Health In An Anxious Age, there is a thin line between medicine and faith. For me, this is great. The tension between my physical wellbeing and spiritual growth has weighed on me over the past few years. How should I take care of my body? Should I spend this much money on healthcare? Should I just eat a lower quality diet to save money? Should I go to the doctor or let nature run it’s course? Cutillo didn't answer these questions for me. However, he did help reshape the part of my worldview that shapes how I make decisions with regard to health.

A Challenging Read

This is one of those books that will likely be a good punch in the gut. Cutillo forcefully (but lovingly) reminds readers that we are not in control. If we think we are, we are prideful. This was one of the central themes of this book, and it really hit home for me. So often, when faced with illness or death, we become frantic like a lost child in a huge mall. We fight like a drowning swimmer to evade cancer, secure ourselves against that rare disease we saw on Facebook, or vaccinate against the diseases “over there” so that they don’t hit us here. In all this striving—none of which is inherently sinful—we are grasping for the last breath of control before we succumb to the waves of sickness and death which will eventually befall each of us. The reality of death and illness pervades the pages of this book, but not in a morbid sense. Cutillo fights to free us from the anxious striving which literally can’t add years to our life or height to our stature.

Hope For Us All

The sobering reality of death and lack of control in this book is balanced by the joyous hope of eternal life. Cutillo weaves the gospel, the sympathy of Christ in His humanity, the guarantee of resurrection, and the joy of life in community throughout this wonderful book. As I pondered the staggering certainty of death, I also mused on the assurance of my future resurrection because of Christ’s resurrection. As I faced the reality of my privilege as a middle class American, I rejoiced that I can still help those who are less fortunate than me. As I dealt with the convicting reality that I don’t care enough for those physically suffering across the globe, I realized that I can help people physically by offering them the Healer of their spiritual wounds.

Pursuing Health In An Anxious Age was one of my favorite reads of 2016. It was a combination of three of my passions: faith, sociology, and medicine. If you share any of these interests and want to make an impact in the lives around you, this is an excellent choice!

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the foreword: What are we to do with our bodies, fearfully and wonderfully made as they are, in times of illness, vulnerability, and death?

From chapter one: Nursery rhymes are useful for a number of reasons. First, they rhyme, which makes them easy to remember. But they can also carry a great deal of meaning… Though we prefer not to think about it, we are very much like Humpty Dumpty. In spite of our own fragile shells, we believe we can sit safely on the precarious wall of life. Although our world is full of disease, accidents, and random misfortunes, many of us never plan on being sick or dying and are quite shocked when we are.
Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age is a thought-provoking read on life, death, health, and healthcare. Written from a Christian doctor's point of view, it addresses what is wrong--and in some cases what is right--about our society, about our society's view of health, and perhaps most importantly about the health care system.

Whether you have insurance or don't have insurance, whether you find your insurance lacking or satisfactory, I think this book is timely and relevant.

The book is not to be rushed through. In fact, I think there are plenty of sections of this one that deserve--almost demand--to be read through two or three times so that they can be fully absorbed or contemplated. Cutillo, I believe, asks questions that I've never encountered elsewhere. His solutions, again, are new and challenging. This book isn't the familiar same-old, same-old. His arguments are compelling, and, if not absolutely persuasive, at least provide much food for thought.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if we thought of health as a gift rather than a possession? And if we considered health as a community issue instead of just an individual concern? This book explores how this perspective changes how we care for the sick and each other. Also interesting is how he applies Charles Taylor's philosophical insights to explain how our view of medical care has changed through the development of the secular age.

[Jaimie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotes from the book:
Pgs. 25-26
"Is health a possession or a gift? [...] If health is a possession, it is my health - something to have and to hold. [...] It is a good definable in my own terms and, as a material value, obtainable at whatever level our societal resources and my individual purchasing abilities allow. [...] But now consider another way, where health is received as a gift [...] a precious endowment. [...] First, endowments are not given in equal proportions; therefore, health will not be received in equal amounts. [...] Rather than pursuing perfect health, we will nurture the health we have received. In addition, we will create health care in ways that strengthen what we have been given instead of reaching for what we do not have or tightly grasping what we cannot keep. Second, as we increasingly see health as a gift, we become better able to discern its deeper reason - it is given for a purpose, to accomplish some good beyond itself, even specific things with which we have been entrusted. It is not protected for its own sake or hoarded for fear of losing it. Instead, we nurture it so that we can use it to gain and grow other goods and benefits."

Pg. 34
"Operating powerfully and silently in the background of our mind, each of us is affected by the cultural idea that we can flourish on our own terms."

Pg. 39
"Many of these changes in modern medicine are driven by the desires of the autonomous self-authorizing individual - full of choice, a focus on future possibilities over current disease, and an emphasis on improving the given model over maintaining or regaining basic health. In short, modern medicine looks increasingly more like the pursuit of happiness and control of the future than the cure of sickness and the care of health."

Pg. 53
"The world refuses to get better despite all the progress we have made."

Pg. 104
"But if a life embodied is always a risk, and the destiny of our lives is connected to the body we have been given, embracing our purpose becomes more important than escaping risk."

Pg. 125
"Tradition has it that many of the early followers of Jesus, including Paul who wrote these words, were martyred for their commitment to the resurrected Christ. But it didn't stop with those who had seen him; it lit a flame that passed on to succeeding generations. During the epidemics of plague and pestilence in the second and third centuries, when many ere dying, most ran from the sick. The early Christians, "learning not to fear death," were willing to care for the victims, hough many of them died as a result. For the surrounding culture, "how they love one another" and "how they are ready even to die" were the most distinguishing characteristics of these early Christian communities."

Pg. 127
"The counterintuitive message of the resurrection is that the path to life is through death. Other narratives that would fulfill our desire for immortality by avoiding death leave the power of death unbroken and the fear of death intact."

Pg. 133
"Learning to rest in neediness, our release from the fear of death has immediate impact. First, grounded in a resurrection confidence that God will be reliable to nourish us daily, we learn to receive without demanding to possess. Second, no longer expecting that we can avoid need, we learn to give while still in need and do not require that our giving must supply all that is missing for our neighbor."

Pg. 140
"To respond wisely and kindly to the next global epidemic, or to unjust systems that oppress many, or even the needs of one single neighbor, we need a sense of shared vulnerability. When we live as if we are invulnerable, every threat frightens us, making our desire for control greater and our need to separate ourselves stronger. But when we acknowledge our common condition, it opens our hearts to care. Sharing the vulnerability of life with others may even help us perceive a mystery that the usual sense would normally miss."

[Renee Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first downloaded this book because it was a free ebook on Crossway’s website and I was in need of another book. I am so glad I did and recommend you do to before it’s gone.

This book outlines a biblical philosophy of theology of health for today’s hyperaware and wellness-driven society. Dr. Cutillo writes academically, but with a common tone that makes this book enjoyable. He seems to fall comfortably in the middle of any spectrum you might devise which makes this a highly thought-provoking book for those who are passionate on some hot button issues of 2020.

I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book as he describes the importance of the practice of medicine, the ways in which the west has elevated health and role of medicine to a god-like status, and then proceeds to shift the reader’s gaze to the certain and unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ while showing how the incarnation and suffering of Christ gives us a new perspective for health. However, unbelievers would still find themselves enamored with this book.

“[Health] is a good, one of our highest goods. But like most goods that are gifts, our efforts to insure, guarantee, or possess it will corrupt it. Like the intimate love of a spouse, the loyalty of a faithful friend, or the satisfaction of doing work well, health grows when we nurture it but diminishes when we try to control it.”

I enjoyed how he highlighted the biblical command to care for oppressed and marginalized peoples, and emphasized the huge disparity that currently exists in the nation’s health care system using personal examples.

“...modern medicine looks increasingly more like the pursuit of happiness and control of the future than the cure of sickness and the care of health.”

Dr. Cutillo does address the anxiety we feel at not being able to know the future, sickness, cures, diagnoses, and death. This is the over-arching and assumed theme of the book. My only regret with this book is that I don’t have a physical copy in which to scribble all the notes. I would have shared every quote and excerpt given enough space. This book is helpful to check our own idolization of health and to help us think thoroughly and deeply, and to extend love to our neighbor—and is especially great book to read through the infamous 2020 lens.

“At times we are angry and feel that the promise of medicine has failed us. But science and technology are bound to fail if we ask them to fulfill promises of biblical proportions.”

Let me know what you think of this book. I’d love to talk about it!

[Audra Falk]

I am not giving this book a rating because for some, I feel they will love it, and for others, it will fall flat.

When this book first came out several years ago I was intrigued by the idea behind the title. Like the back blurb reads, "Despite all the care available to us, our society is more concerned about health than ever." This resonated with me personally as I'm sure it does with many. (It's important to realize that it was published in 2016, so, in the "before covid" times.)

There is a lot of good information and challenges to our thinking about health care here, but I was disappointed to find that those good insights were often buried in lengthy chapters.

Although this is a short book (169 pages if you don't include the "Notes" section) it would probably have benefited from a good editing, removal of repetitive passages, focus on the main ideas, and perhaps a re-structuring into a lengthy article or article series that could have been published as a blog or within magazines or other print media. This would have potentially reached a wider audience and thus have more of an impact as a potential agent of change in our culture. As it is, I am not sure how widely read this book is.

I ended up skimming a lot of the content, which I don't normally do when I read. In particular I felt the author spent too much time refuting Gnosticism, emphasizing the importance of the Resurrection, and establishing why Christians should acknowledge the importance of the body and not just the soul. I would have rather the author just get on with his points, but it's clear he feels the need to preemptively address objections. (C. S. Lewis does the same thing!)

I found that the most impactful sections, including the challenges to both church and health care providers, were largely in the last half of the book.

[Chip Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Christians who try to broach the topic of medicine and healthcare are left repeating trite banalities. Most healthcare practitioners who appeal to theology are even triter. I have looked, largely in vain, for someone who can speak with authority into both spaces. My search has concluded.

Dr. Cutillo, as a physician trained at one of the top medical schools, having practiced medicine for decades amongst indigent patients, a student of the healthcare delivery system, and faculty at a state medical school, speaks with authority into what medicine is, both practically and philosophically. As a Christian, faculty at Denver Seminary, and a student of the literary classics (which he cites on almost every page), he speaks with keen insight into moral philosophy. I plan to re-read this one again soon.

For any Christian who is attempting to broach issues of healthcare (e.g. pastors counseling sick members) or healthcare practitioners who seek to submit their practice to their faith, this is a must-read. I was skeptical of what valuable insights Cutillo would offer, but he won me over quickly. As an incoming medical student, he has shifted my paradigm of what healthcare is and how we've abused it. Along the way, he appeals to historical scientists and theologians to show that his ideas are not brought up out of thin air. But at the same time, his views smell of something just outside the zeitgeist of our day, making them into refreshing philosophical smelling salts. I hope they can wake us up.

[Shelbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It focuses largely on how Christians should view health (their own and others’), and how we should think about the medical system and medical practitioners. It delves into end of life care, and how our culture places so much trust in modern-day medical advances that we are made to feel immortal. There is a lot of gospel focus in the book - for example the chapter on the “clinical gaze” of the medical system is followed by a whole chapter on “the gaze of the gospel,” and the chapters on how we view mortality and death are followed by the chapter “Death Defanged and Defeated.” I took off a star because I didn’t quite like his view in chapter 9 of how health care is currently “inequitably distributed” and how “communal health is more important than individual health”. I thought it was oddly contradictory to the rest of the chapters in the book, which talk a lot about how the medical system views people as statistics and not individuals. Nevertheless, this is a great read for all Christians but especially for any who are undergoing a health crisis or caring for someone in a health crisis.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perhaps the best book I've read this year in its ability to get me to think about the topic. Early in the book Cutillo examines our culture's use of statistics and how it depersonalizes and skews our understanding of ourselves and the world. This was thought-transforming for me and applies to so many other areas like parenting and teaching. Cutillo does a great job looking at the theology behind "health care." He doesn't give too many exact applications, which is sometimes frustrating (I really want to know more about what he thinks some solutions are), but this is probably good because it gives you an opportunity to think through how the theology applies rather than jumping straight to tactics, whether that's personal or political.

[JSem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutillo writes from the unique perspective of a Christian physician who treats marginalized patients and has a great interest in Christian community development. I'm still wrestling with his assertion that there is no such thing as individual health without community health.

The chapter about scarcity-abundance thinking is a bit contradictory. He tells about Jesus scolding his disciples for their scarcity mentality. Then he calls for a more equitable distribution of health care, saying, for example, that mammograms for so many who don't really need them keeps poor women with great cancer from getting treatment.

[Joe]

What a tremendous look at our current times and situation under Corona Virus. I really like his approach to see things from God's perspective and with a view to a more healthy view of medicine and science. The real story here is our reliance on foreign gods of health and prosperity which has led us to a lack of security.

A much needed reset on our view of medicine and its proper use.

[Claire Laster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved and needed this book. I especially resonated with the brief but powerful point he made about your specific body being placed in your specific time to carry out your specific purpose— as we see in the life of Jesus. I haven’t read a book like this before at the intersection of Christian faith and medicine.

[Angela Weisz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresh vision for healthcare

It has inspired me to a new vision for healthcare and my place in it as a nurse. It has created a deep desire to do better with protecting the gift of health and bring God back to the center.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book for discussion because it challenges ways of thinking that have become second nature even in the church.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot to think about, and definitely relevant in the age of Covid-19.

[SH Chong · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Secular Age” meets theology meets healthcare. Great nexus.

[Christopher-James Neethling · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good and interesting read, but definitely not a must read.

[Elizabeth Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

We in America have access to some of the best healthcare in the world (or so I’m told), yet we also experience the highest anxiety levels when it comes to pursuing medical care. If our doctors need to run further tests, or if they just simply doesn’t know what’s causing the problem, we stress and fret and actually worsen our physical symptoms.

But do we really own our health? Does it belong to us — or to God? What if our health is a gift to simply nurture as we have received it, rather than a possession to control and protect?

Author and medical doctor Bob Cutillo dives deeply into this issue in his book Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age. He suggests that there’s an ever-widening gap between what we expect from our healthcare and the truth of who we are as human beings. Though our medical abilities and understanding have seemed to grow by leaps and bounds, and though it feels like we have more control over physical problems than ever before, there are ways in which it has moved far too rapidly and is actually less in our control than ever before.

In his words: “Our current efforts in health care are full of power and possibility. But though policies and practices progress rapidly forward, it feels like a train coming off the rails because we’ve gone too fast, and we have no clear idea where we are going. In order to figure that out, we have to be willing to think about what human beings are in our nature and who we are in our destiny. "

We typically pursue medical care for the purpose of becoming more whole, of curing disease and healing injury. We think that choosing just the right doctor, the right treatment, the right lifestyle will guarantee us a healthier body and thus a happier mind. But medicine will always fall short of our expectations. It can never fully deliver us from who we are (mortal creatures marred by sin) or where we’re headed (death).

In pursuing top-notch healthcare so fervently, are we actually seeking to deny the frailty and mortality of our bodies? Otherwise, why do we so desperately seek to escape our physical limitations? Why do we try to run from death with all our (feeble) strength?

{Note: the author does caution that changing our perspective and pursuit of medical care “in no way dismisses or discredits a thoughtful care of the body that includes healthy diet, good exercise, and proper rest.” He is a medical doctor, after all!}

Medicine is a gift of God for the benefit of humanity. But perhaps we’ve approached it from the wrong direction. Perhaps what we want is not so much good healthcare, but control over our bodies.

Cutillo seeks to help us cultivate a biblical understanding of the relationship between faith and health in the modern age, reorienting us to a wiser pursuit of health for the good of all. He approaches this by considering four major aspects of our relationship with medicine:

- What has shaped our current views of healthcare?
- How does our attitude toward healthcare deny biblical truths about humanity?
- How does our hope for immortality affect our decisions about medical care?
- What are the underlying connections between the Gospel and medicine?

As someone who has lived with chronic illness for over ten years, seeking to control symptoms and fight physical decline, I have a valid reason to pursue quality healthcare in a timely and consistent manner. But even those with good reason to do so can elevate it beyond its station and make it a higher priority than it should be. Again, Cutillo writes: “If our bodies are an inescapable fact, then trying to change them beyond what they are meant to be is likely to make us sick rather than healthy.” Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age challenges the world’s passion for physical longevity, pinpoints the disparity between our care for the soul and care for the body, and questions the prevailing methods of both providing and seeking healthcare.

As we are all feeble creatures prone to disease and destined for physical death, I would recommend it to everyone who wants to approach physical care in a manner that honors the Gospel. It is deep, and I’m sure I failed to grasp some of the truths that Cutillo expounded upon, but it is thorough and well-balanced between our obvious need for medicine and our equally obvious need to establish a biblical worldview in every area of life.

I leave you with one final thought from the book’s introduction: “We need a view of life and health that can respond to the tragedy of cancer that fails treatment, the unfaithfulness of a spouse who has given his wife a sexually transmitted disease, or the birth of an imperfect child. We need a story that can embrace contingency without running away, even finding a way to make it meaningful . . . that accepts the basic reality that we are dependent, frail, and fragile.”

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Crossway in exchange for providing an honest review. All opinions expressed herein are completely my own.

[JEM · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of healthcare and medical advancements, case stories, the gospel, even antrhopology and philosophy......this book is a bit of all of the above. The author is a doctor and has a very interesting perspective on health and how we approach it as Christians. While at times it is clear the context he is writing from is the US and is reflected in the specific examples, the overall message is universal. The chapter called "The Gaze of the Gospel" is one worth reading and re-reading.

(Due to the topic, it becomes clear that this book was written pre-covid era)

[Ben Makuh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do greater certainty and more control only heighten our fear for what remains outside our control—especially if the possibilities are so improbable?

—Bob Cutillo, MD

It is a curious thing that health care, whose very existence was once solely predicated upon helping people, has become an intimidating, monolithic, even frightening system that nobody fully understands and that can even ruin people physically, financially, and emotionally. It is not that anyone sets out with an evil gleam in his or her eye seeking to scuttle the lives of the medically needy; instead, we have arrived at the current state of health care rather unintentionally. The root problem is that we believe our health to be a possession to which we are entitled and our health care a service which we have purchased, and thus are owed good service.

This is at least the thesis of the recent book Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age by Dr. Bob Cutillo, a physician for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless in Denver, Colorado. it is true, of course, that when you or I go to the doctor we do expect competent and accurate diagnosis of any issues we are suffering from. What happens, though, when the diagnosis is something that cannot be treated? We may rage and splutter at the doctor as if we are being short shrifted, but this belies the fact that we have forgotten that health is a gift, not a possession. Nobody receives a guarantee in the birthing room that he or she will live a long, healthy, and disease-free life. Every healthy day we live is undeserved.

With a certain amount of irony, it is this acceptance of our true lot in life that actually leads to a better relationship with our health. Life is a gift, and when a doctor, medicine, drug, or procedure restores us back to health this is also a gift. When we receive the news that a chronic condition is incurable or that death is knocking at the door, we can receive that news with sorrow, but also with a certain measure of peace and contentment, because every good day we have ever lived has been given to us.

I personally have a complicated relationship with the medical establishment; luckily I only have ever been to the doctor for something really serious a couple of times, but the heartache of sickness and death is not far from any one of us. I have lived my life in the peculiar valley that many others dwell in; on the one hand there are those who insist that everything about the medical establishment is good and ought to be accepted uncritically if it is uttered from the doctor's lips. On the other hand, there are those who swear off anything and everything that has to do with the AMA; healthy living is a specific formula of nutrition, vitamins, essential oils, natural remedies, and even things like homeopathy and reflexology. To be honest, one of the reasons I picked up Dr. Cutillo's book was to see if he might provide a way forward.

Reading Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age did not automatically reconcile these two groups in my mind or even provide me with an obvious third way, but Dr. Cutillo did help me recognize and understand that the posture of control is evident in both of these groups—they just disagree on how to control life. Viewing life as a gift, however, offers a certain amount of liberty in both. You can receive the diagnosis from the doctor without being disillusioned when the news is bad.

If I have any critique to offer of the book, it's that its target audience is not always clear. Sometimes it's as if Cutillo is writing to medical professionals, and sometimes to laypeople. The result is a book that feels at some points laser-focused in its intent and at other points simply over my head. That is a relatively small critique, however, and in general there is plenty of food for thought for any reader. Though I would hesitate to call this a five star book, it nevertheless is one of the most interesting, applicable, and genre-crossing books I have read this year. I highly recommend it.

You can pick up a copy on Amazon for $10 or WTS Books for $16.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

[Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent start to a topic I would like to see addressed more often. Especially from a biblical point of view.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read. Well-written and researched (great notes section that provided all references), the examples were right on, really emphasizing each point. The book made me question my whole perspective of health, the health care system, and really, life in general and mortality. I love the question the author poses, of how you view health -- do you see health as a possession or as a gift?

From the Introduction, pages 25-26:
If health is a possession, it is my health -- something to have and hold, a thing like any other substantive reality, such as money, cars, or houses. It is a good definable in my own terms and, as a material value, obtainable at whatever level our societal resources and my individual purchasing abilities allow.... Coinciding with this view of health is a strong trend to make health care a commodity and the patient a consumer who chooses among a menu of options to control health.... As long as we remain here, we are in danger that our worries will increase, our wasteful spending will multiply, and our waylaid commitments to neighbor will become wanton disregard.

But now consider another way, where health is received as a gift. Rather than seeing health as a material good managed for our personal happiness, we receive it as a precious endowment. What would that meant for why we pursue health and how we shape health care?

First, endowments are not given in equal portions; therefore, health will not be received in equal amounts. This is verified by our everyday experiences; some are born with longevity in their genes and strength in their bodies, while others struggle almost daily with disability and disease. If we begin in difference places, this necessarily means that there is no abstract ideal of health. Rather than pursuing perfect health, we will nurture the health we have received. In addition, we will create health care in ways that strengthen what we have been given instead of reaching for what we do not have or tightly grasping what we cannot keep.

Second, as we increasingly see health as a gift, we become better able to discern its deeper reason -- it is given for a purpose, to accomplish some good beyond itself, even specific things with which we have been entrusted. It is not protected for its own sake or hoarded for fear of losing it. Instead, we nurture it so that we can use it to gain and grow other goods and benefits. We may even go so far as to see a relationship between the proportion of health we have received and the purposes we are meant to accomplish. //

[Bob Mendelsohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The breadth of coverage is superb. I'm glad a church in Eastern Pennsylvania had this book on its recommendation list. Cutillo covers history, terminology, and medicalization, but my main takeaway continues to be making sure that all the data doesn't replace the need for personal care and treatment. Of course, as a patient, and not a medical professional, my job is to be humble and to listen to advice, to get the required tests and present myself for proper investigation, and to keep fit as much as possible. It's a good read.
His mixing of faith (religion) and science is very carefully written and easy to follow. In fact, I finished the book after a hospital colonoscopy the other day. This is a very good read and helpful to anyone living in uncertain times (which is always!). I liked the quote, “A fatal mistake in pursuing health and practising medicine is thinking we have no destiny beyond this world. Although the church herself at times struggles to remember, no other institution is better able to remind us that hope does not lie in the nostalgia of the past, the realities of the present, or the certainties of a calculated future “ — Dr Bob Cutillo

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good. Definitely made me think about healthcare in a different light.

[Jessica]

I really enjoyed many of the insights in this book. In my opinion, the second half is much more cohesive than the first, and the conclusion is excellent. After reading half the book, I could share some of the author's perspective with a friend but was unable to really pin down the premise or thesis of the book. By the end, it was much more clear.