Myrick C. Shinall Jr., MD, PhD, is associate professor of surgery and medicine in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He obtained his Master of Divinity followed by a PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity from Vanderbilt. He is the author of Miracles and the Kingdom of God and “The Social Status of Lepers in the Gospels” (Journal of Biblical Literature).