Jonathan D. Riddle

@jonathandriddle.bsky.social

1264 Followers 563 Following

Historian of medicine and religion | Health humanities coordinator | Notre Dame PhD | Same handle everywhere Book mss: The Gospel of Health: How Science, Religion, and Capitalism Shaped Wellness in America

"So once you’re equipped with information, your next stop is the app store on your phone. There’s an app for every landmark on your journey. Just accept the terms, download, and follow the prompts. And stay alert to the health news filling your inbox. It is on you to journey safely, and older advice can lead you straight off a cliff."

Picture of the cover of the book

Screenshot of text reading, "Is it the fault or the misfortune of the successor of James and Dewees, that the soporific influence which he might desire to exert over his patients with ether and chloroform overspreads his class when listening to his sedative discourses?"

Image of a nineteenth-century newspaper article reading, "The person who will tell me that man is a meat-eating animal is not fit to teach. [Looking at Dr. Wieting.] He is a stupid blockhead, and as blind as Samson was after the Philistines had to put out his eyes."

Screenshot of a passage of text describing nineteenth-century Philadelphia physicians as querulous and combative.

Table of contents for the forum, "COVID-19 in Context"

According to their credo of freedom über alles, to be a “man without a country” is not a punishment but a privileged exemption from the manacles of communal obligation. Rather than a role defined by duties as well as rights, citizenship for them is just one more consumer option in a competitive global marketplace.

The temperament-based approach breaks people down into five types: Melancholy, Choleric, Sanguine, Supine, and Phlegmatic. Richard and Phyllis Arno, who established a test to identify people's temperament, founded the National Christian Counselors Association in the early 1980s. They and their advocates prefer the term temperament over personalities as the term personality is characterized as a "mask" while temperaments are "inborn" and thus inherent to each individual regardless of outside influences such as parenting. Their work is largely based on Hippocrates' view that there were four temperaments.

Rev. Ben Chavis, right, raises his fist as fellow protesters are taken to jail at the Warren County PCB landfill near Afton, N.C., on Sept. 16, 1982.
Greg Gibson/AP

Geographical distribution of known and newly discovered pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in Amazonia

"Churches that responded to COVID-19 by shutting their doors for long periods, limiting attendance, and requiring masks for extended intervals sometimes lost members who wanted to return to “normal” more quickly. And churches that responded with less stringent restrictions sometimes lost members who were more cautious or had health concerns."