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From Monastery to Hospital: Christian Monasticism and the Transformation of Health Care in Late Antiquity. By Andrew T. Crislip. Arm Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2005. x + 236 pp. $65.00 cloth.
The question of the origin of hospitals has generated a long-standing debate in the history of medicine. Some scholars see the pre-Christian temples of the Greek god Asclepius as the original hospitals, while others look to Roman military hospitals as the first model. However, a significant group of scholars sees the origins in the Byzantine era. In particular, Timothy Miller, in The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire (Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985; reprint with new introduction, 1997), traces the origin of the hospital to the activities of Arian churches of the early fourth century in Asia Minor. Andrew Crislip, an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Hawaii, enters the debate with a fresh and intriguing argument, which traces the origin of the hospital to the monastic activities of Basil the Great (ca. 330-79), who served as Bishop of Caesarea (Cappadocia).
Crislip develops his argument in four chapters. The first, "The Monastic Health Care System: Institutions and Methods," places the origin and...