Luke, the Greek Physician : studies in his character and work, Parts II-IV / [George Homan].

  • Homan, George
Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Luke, the Greek Physician : studies in his character and work, Parts II-IV / [George Homan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    greater glory of the faith. Against this flood it is hardly possible that Luke and his works were able to stand entirely uninfluenced, and it is reasonable that doubt has been expressed that he really held fast to his scientific moorings under such tremendous pressure, but amid the drift and sediment of this turbid emotional and ecclesias¬ tical overflow there still appear some signs of Luke as a medical man erect and unswerved from the principles of his early profession. That which a man leaves undone may be of more significance and what he does not say may be more eloquent than if he gave free rein to deed and word, and while Luke as a chronicler, or others in his name, gave currency to much that only unreasoning credulity could accept, he himself so far as can be known in no place or time ever laid claim to or exercised in any degree what was asserted to be miraculous powers in human healing. In this attitude of abstention not only were the ingrained teachings of scientific medicine justified but characteristics of the sus¬ tained dignity of the Greek spirit were revealed which, briefly, were obedience to reason, the duty to seek out underlying causes, to refrain from haste in judgment, to interpret thought in clear forms, to give fitting expression to feelings and sympathies and the like, and to every one of these tests Luke rings true, so far as can now be known. With wise sufferance and administra¬ tive tact no doubt he chose not to see much that he was not prepared to approve, and it must have been his sorest trial to moderate and hold within bounds much that was done by his asso¬ ciates. Moreover, in some of the best work put forth in the name of another apostle there is the
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