Christian Doctor’s Digest – November 2019 – #2

Dr. Ray Barfield is Professor of Pediatrics and Christian Philosophy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He received his MD and his PhD (in philosophy) from Emory University. He is a pediatric oncologist and palliative care physician with an interest in expanding the role of the humanities and the arts in the formation of physicians. He has published widely in medicine, philosophy and literature, including several books: Life in the Blind Spot (poetry), The Book of Colors (a novel), The Ancient Quarrel Between Poetry and Philosophy and Wager: Beauty, Suffering, and Being in the World. Forthcoming books include Dante’s New Moon (poetry), The Practice of Medicine as Being in Time (philosophy) and The Poetic Apriori: Philosophical Imagination in a Meaningful Universe (philosophy). He was the founding director of two programs at Duke: Pediatric Quality of Life Palliative Care and Theology, Medicine, and Culture. Currently, he is the director of the Medical Humanities Program for the Trent Center for Bioethics, Medical Humanities and History of Medicine in the Medical School. Ray is Married to Karen Barfield, an Episcopal priest. They have two children, Micah and Alexandra, and one grandson named Crew.