The difference between "illness" and "disease" is not a distinction I have ever made. In American society it seems as though the two words are used interchangeably.
In Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, Crossan, describes the two terms like this; "illnesses are experiences of disvalued changes in states of being and in social function, and diseases are abnormalities in the structure and function of body organs and systems." The distinction is very interesting. I have always thought of an illness as a cold and a disease as something more serious to you health.
I brought up in class on Tuesday the idea of a mental illness. I have never considered the choice of wording until now but, when someone is mentally ill they tend to act in a way that is looked down upon in our society...among other things. Alex said that maybe the word isn't being used correctly but if you think more in depth about it, yes there is something actually medically wrong with the person, but maybe there are bigger reasons why the word illness was used rather than disease.
Crossan is distinguishing these very similar terms in a particular way in order to clarify an important and often neglected distinction, without which we cannot understand Jesus. The basic idea is that the social healing of illness is distinguishable from the physical curing of disease.
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