Protestant Medical Missions in Iran: Negotiating Religion and Modernity in Mission Hospitals

Focusing on the Protestant mission hospitals in Iran during the reign of Reza Pahlavi, this article analyzes the concepts and ideas referred to as medical care in missionary narratives as well as reactions of the Iranians to the missionary medical initiatives. Trying to situate mission hospitals in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions
Main Author: Rzepka, Marcin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI 2024
In: Religions
Year: 2024, Volume: 15, Issue: 2
Further subjects:B Reza Pahlavi
B Medicine
B Hospitals
B Iran
B Modernity
B Protestant missions
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Summary:Focusing on the Protestant mission hospitals in Iran during the reign of Reza Pahlavi, this article analyzes the concepts and ideas referred to as medical care in missionary narratives as well as reactions of the Iranians to the missionary medical initiatives. Trying to situate mission hospitals in the context of the rapid social and cultural changes that the Iranians faced because of the implementation of the monarch’s reforms and the policies of centralization, statism, and social uniformity, the article puts emphasis on the fact that mission hospitals introduced a processual and negotiable type of medical modernity different from what was launched by the state at that time. Creating the healthcare networks in Iran, the Protestant hospitals produced the ideal—in the missionaries’ eyes—types of medical modernity that might be presented as the social and cultural roles played by patients, converts, and nurses.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel15020145