Overview
Farr Curlin, MD, is Josiah Trent Professor of Medical Humanities in the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, & History of Medicine and Co-Director of the Theology, Medicine and Culture Initiative (TMC) at Duke University. Dr. Curlin has worked to bring attention to the intersection of medicine, ethics, and theology. In 2012 he helped to found both the University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine and Religion and the annual Conference on Medicine and Religion. Since 2015, through Duke Divinity School’s TMC Initiative, he and colleagues have brought graduate theological training to those with vocations to health care. Starting in 2023, Dr. Curlin also is working with colleagues across North America to develop the Hippocratic Society, an association of students and practitioners dedicated to fulfilling the profession to heal. He is co-author, with Chris Tollefsen, of The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (Notre Dame University Press, 2021), as well as more than 150 articles and book chapters addressing the moral and spiritual dimensions of medical practice.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
"Who am I to Say?" Why Clinical Ethics Consultants Should be Trained to Give Directive Counsel.
Journal Article HEC Forum · February 1, 2026 Full text Link to item CiteThe Role of the Physician in Caring for Patients Pursuing VSED: Challenging the Conventional Approach.
Journal Article J Am Geriatr Soc · December 2025 The conventional approach to caring for patients pursuing voluntarily stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) allows physicians to disagree with the patient's decisions to pursue VSED, but it assumes clinicians should accept the patient's choice and provide ... Full text Link to item CiteFrom Detached Concern to Love: Reconsidering Physician-Patient Boundaries
Journal Article Academic Medicine · August 1, 2025 Developing appropriate professional boundaries is part of becoming a mature clinician. Boundaries help physicians fulfill their duties in relationally complex and emotionally fraught situations. The concept of “detached concern” has been used to characteri ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Seminars on Faith and Science
Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Foundation for Excellence in Education · 2019 - 2022Arete Initiative at the Kenan Institute for Ethics
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Foundation for Excellence in Education · 2019 - 2021Training Research-Literate Chaplains as Ambassadors for Spirituality and Health: Phase I
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Rush University Medical Center · 2015 - 2019View All Grants