Program Archive

Health and Society Seminar "Religion, Healing and Public Health"

Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Center for Health, Culture, Society Joint Seminar Fall 2002  There is an increasing realization for many in the humanities as well as in the medical professions that much can be learned from a productive dialogue about the role of religion in the experience of healing. Although many faculty perform research in science and religion separately, it is clear that at this time and in this place many hunger for conversation partners outside of their usual milieus. The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Fellowship Program, led by Gary Laderman, PhD and Arri Eisen, PhD, has received funding to facilitate these conversations and highlight leading scholars from Emory who have begun to explore the mostly uncharted frontier at the intersections of medical science and religious practice. The goal of the project and the planned associated activities is to promote a sustained and in-depth discussion about the possible links between religion, medicine, and healing. The project will feed into an extensive program of research, education and dissemination activities addressing these and related questions: What role do religion and spirituality play in healing? What does the role of religion and spirituality in healers' lives have to do with their approach to healing? What role have religion and spirituality played historically in Western medicine? How are modern biomedical investigations into mind/body connections challenging conventional views about religion in the West? How do religion and issues of mind and body fit into the broad social context of particular communities' understanding of illness and health? How do modern healers respond to a multicultural clientele? How do attitudes toward death shape the way communities view health and well being? How do we best develop educational instruments to integrate these issues into public discourse? Given this moment of apparent transition in the history of healing in the West, how can the tools of the academy best facilitate the unconventional, but necessary, interdisciplinary processes to ensure that the next generation of healers, as well as the public at large is fully informed about healthcare choices? The questions will be explored through four key interconnected elements: a faculty/graduate student seminar, an undergraduate seminar, a public symposium and a published volume. The faculty/graduate student seminar met during the Fall 2002 semester and was entitled "Religion, Healing, and Public Health." Participants were nvited with the specific purpose of pursuing readings and discussion topics related to Healers and Healing. It is sponsored jointly by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and the Center for Health, Culture, and Society. Seminar participants met weekly during the Fall 2002 semester. Discussions of selected readings were combined with presentations from outside speakers.

For more articles in the The Academic Exchange: Special Issue: Religion, Healing, and Public Health

Religion and WHAT? by Amy Benson Brown from CHCS January 2003 Newsletter This fall twenty-eight faculty are participating in a seminar exploring connections between discourses rarely linked, even in this interdisciplinary era: religion, public health, and healing. The impetus for this seminar stems from a collaboration among historian of religion Gary Laderman, biologist Arri Eisen, anthropologist Peter Brown, historian of science Howard Kushner and Director of the Interfaith Initiative Gary Gunderson. Sponsoring the weekly breakfast meetings are the Center for Health, Culture, the Society and the Science and Society Program, and a grant from the Berkeley-based Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Danishes and fruit mingle with the articles and book chapters on the table each week, and seminar organizers hope the participants' research and teaching will similarly be fed by the questions raised about health and healing from different perspectives. For seminar member Carol Hogue, the combination of diverse readings and casual conversation has been rewarding. "During the past three years, " she says, "I have been exploring the intersection of reproductive health, public health, and religion. My colleagues in this seminar have helped me better frame a research agenda in this area." Readings and guest speakers have ranged over topics such as mind-body medicine, scientific studies of prayer, and the power of advances in genetics and molecular biology to pressure our definition of what is human. Bringing perspectives from religion to bear on health and medicine has complicated participant's understanding of the meaning of "health." Similarly, medical and public health perspectives have questioned the breadth and boundaries of what is meant by "religion." Through these weekly musings, seminar organizers hope to prepare for further explorations of these issues in an undergraduate course next spring and a conference on religion, public health, and medicine to be held next April. Arri Eisen says he finds the faculty development / undergraduate course combination model extremely effective. "The two components feed and complement each other. Besides the obvious ideas for reading that cross-fertilize the seminars and the courses, cross-disciplinary perspectives in the faculty seminars are great informational and pedagogical aids for integration into the undergraduate courses" he says. Beyond facilitating new directions in teaching and research, this kind of gathering and exchange among researchers from very different disciplines also helps colleagues get to know each other. Toward that end, one seminar member each week shares a brief personal statement about his or her views of religion, health, and healing. "Personal statements break down the walls separating 'professional' identity and 'personal' identity. In most cases, they allow participants to narrate how personal experiences shape professional research and teaching interests. But they also demonstrate, or embody, how complicated the intersections of religion, science, health, spirituality are in real life, for people across the campus and much of our larger culture," says Laderman.

SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS Peter Brown, PhD, Anthropology Department and Co-Director, Center for Health, Culture, Society Arri Eisen, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Biology and Director of Program in Science & Society Joyce Flueckiger, Ph.D., Director, Asian Studies Program Carla Gober, Fellow, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Gary Gunderson, PhD, Associate Professor, Religion DeKeely Hartsfield, Fellow, Center for Health, Culture, Society David Hilton, MD, Professor, International Health Carol Hogue, PhD, Professor, Epidemiology Paula Jayne, Fellow, Center for Health, Culture, Society David Jenkins, PhD, Professor, Candler School of Theology Camara Jones Miriam Kiser, Interfaith Health Program Howard Kushner, PhD, Professor Behavioral Sciences and Health Education and Co-Director, Center for Health, Culture, and Society Gary Laderman, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Religion Tong-Soon Lee, PhD., Assistant Professor, Music Richard Levinson, PhD, Professor and Associate Dean, Rollins School of Plublci Health Eric Lindland, Student, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Barbara McClure Ron Milestone, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry Jeanne Moseley, Fellow, Center for Health, Culture, Society Deepika Petraglia-Bahri, PhD, Associate Professor, Religion Maurita Poole, Fellow, Center for Health, Culture, Society