Great advancements in medicine and its many achievements are a fact for the modern civilizations. Religion coexists harmoniously with science while technology allows rapid access to an exchange of information, both playing an increasingly important role in the whole process of medical development. However, obstacles encountered by physicians were usually insurmountable and without them, the progress of science would have been undiminished. The established religious beliefs, non-progressive thinking, geopolitical imperialism, corruption, contributed many times to a misinterpretation on the original role of medicine, leading to a delay in medical progress. While being influenced by social and technological innovations, knowledge always prevented the medicine from stagnating and helped overcome differences between science and religion. The aim of this paper is to provide a survey on the contributions of some influential physicians and civilizations, and the role of religion on the evolution of medicine, from ancient times until the Renaissance.
Key words: Medicine, history, healers, religion, Renaissance
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