Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine - Paperback

by Michael J. Balboni (Author), John R. Peteet (Author)

Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine provides a comprehensive evaluation of the relationship between spirituality, religion, and medical practice. The authors, all leading clinician-researchers in their fields, assess the strengths and weaknesses of the most recent empirical research of religion and spirituality within many distinct fields of medicine. Recognizing the interdisciplinary aspects of spirituality, religion, and health, the book also turns to scholarship throughout a multitude of academic fields-including psychology, sociology, anthropology, law, history, philosophy, and theology-to consider cultural dimensions of clinical practice. This is the first time in a single volume that readers can reflect on these multi-dimensional, complex issues with contributions from leading scholars, as well as the first collection that assesses how the medical context interacts with patient spirituality recognizing crucial differences between contexts from
obstetrics and family medicine, to nursing, to gerontology and the ICU.

The book concludes with a synthesis, identifying the best studies in the field of religion and health, ongoing weaknesses in research, and highlighting what can be confidently believed based on prior studies. The synthesis also considers relations between the empirical literature on religion and health and the theological and religious traditions, discussing places of convergence and tension, as well as remaining open questions for further reflection and research.

Spirituality and Religion within the Culture of Medicine provides trainees and clinicians introductory information for newcomers to the field of spirituality, religion, and medicine, and provides researchers and scholars familiar with field critical and up-to-date analysis from a multi-disciplinary approach.

Author Biography

Michael J. Balboni is a theologian and social-scientific researcher at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is co-director of the Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality at Harvard University and co-leads the National Conference on Medicine and Religion. His empirical research focuses on describing the spiritual beliefs and practices of patients, clinicians, and religious communities in end-of-life care. His theological work examines religion and spirituality within secular medical contexts, including Hostility to Hospitality (Oxford University Press), co-written with Tracy Balboni, MD. He is Senior Minister to the Longwood Christian Community, an intentional religious community of healthcare students and professionals in Boston.

John R. Peteet is a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He has authored or co-edited several books and numerous papers on the clinical interface between spirituality/religion and psychiatry and serves as president of the American Psychiatric Association's Caucus on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry.