Issue 21 Changing MindsBlog | Shalom from Genesis to Revelation
Shalom from Genesis to Revelation
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 10.12.19
In the wake of World War II something extraordinary happened in UK politics. Despite the enormous challenges of rebuilding the bombed-out infrastructure, of rehabilitating returning servicemen, and of ongoing food shortages, on 5 July 1948 the National Health Service was established. Its aim: to provide healthcare from cradle to grave, free at the point of delivery, to all according to their need not their ability to pay. Another health-related revolution was taking place around the same time. On 22 July 1946, the United Nations established the World Health Organisation. Its definition of health has, in my opinion, never been surpassed: ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’
Why am I writing about the NHS and the WHO in an article about shalom? Because these two stories provide us with a glimpse of what biblical shalom is all about. Although we tend to translate it as ‘peace’, shalom is something much richer and more well-rounded than that single word implies. That beautiful, holistic definition of health gives us a glimpse of its breadth:
