The Religion of a Doctor: Religio Medici

Religio Medici

The Religion of a Doctor

Sir Thomas Browne

Religio Medici (The Religion of a Doctor) by Sir Thomas Browne is a spiritual testament and an early psychological self-portrait. Published in 1643 after an unauthorized version was distributed the previous year, it became a European best-seller which brought its author fame at home and abroad.

Structured upon the Christian virtues of Faith and Hope (part 1) and Charity (part 2), Browne expresses a belief in salvation "by faith alone," the existence of hell, the day of judgement, the resurrection and other tenets of Protestantism.

There is no Church whose every part so squares unto my Conscience; whose Articles, Constitutions, and Customs seem so consonant unto reason, and as it were framed to my particular Devotion, as this whereof I hold my Belief, the Church of England;..... In brief, where the Scripture is silent, the Church is my d104; where that speaks, 'tis but my Comment: where there is a joint silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my Religion from Rome or Geneva, but the dictates of my own reason.

Throughout Religio Medici Browne uses scientific imagery to illustrate religious truths as part of his discussion on the relationship of science to religion, a topic which has lost none of its contemporary relevance.