Addiction, Faith, and the Whole Person with Dr. Quentin Genuis

Faith always has a public facet. It is lived out in the public sphere, in our day-to-day lives, our families and friendships, in those we encounter as we walk down the street, as we think about how the most vulnerable amongst us are treated and valued in society.

We see this in the current interactions between religious and political leaders, as we touch on in our introductory conversation, and in how subjects like addiction are talked about, particularly in understandings of faith.

We are please to welcome Dr. Quentin Genuis, emergency physician at St. Paul’s Hospital, ethicist, and author of Recovering People: Addiction, Personhood, and the Life of the Church. Bringing together his hospital work and theological degree, Quentin shares stories and insights shaped by close encounters with people living with addiction.

Together, we explore how common frameworks, seeing addiction as either a matter of choice or purely a disease, fall short. Instead, Quintin offers a “personal model,” one that takes seriously the full humanity of each person. Addiction, in this view, is often a search for good things: belonging, peace, joy, and healing—but sought in ways that ultimately do not lead to life.

What might it mean to move beyond labels and diagnoses, to see the whole person in front of us?

References

“Trump vs. The Pope,” The Daily, April 16, 2026

“Trump’s Christlike image is filled with sloppy symbolism,” The Washington Post, April 13, 2026