Religion and Healing in America
Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered
Abstract
Throughout much of the modern era, faith healing received attention only when it came into conflict with biomedical practice. During the 1990s, however, American culture changed dramatically and religious healing became a commonplace feature of the country's society. Increasing numbers of mainstream churches and synagogues began to hold held “healing services” and “healing circles”. The use of complementary and alternative therapies—some connected with spiritual or religious traditions—became widespread, and the growing hospice movement drew attention to the spiritual aspects of medical care. ... More
Throughout much of the modern era, faith healing received attention only when it came into conflict with biomedical practice. During the 1990s, however, American culture changed dramatically and religious healing became a commonplace feature of the country's society. Increasing numbers of mainstream churches and synagogues began to hold held “healing services” and “healing circles”. The use of complementary and alternative therapies—some connected with spiritual or religious traditions—became widespread, and the growing hospice movement drew attention to the spiritual aspects of medical care. At the same time, changes in immigration laws brought to the United States new cultural communities, each with their own approaches to healing. Cuban santeros, Haitian mambos and oungans, Cambodian Buddhist priests, Chinese herbalist-acupuncturists, and Hmong shamans are only a few of the newer types of American religious healers, often found practicing within blocks of prestigious biomedical institutions. This book offers a collection of chapters examining this new reality. It brings together scholars from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives to explore the field of religious healing as understood and practiced in diverse cultural communities in the United States.
Keywords:
faith healing,
biomedical practice,
religious healing,
churches,
synagogues,
healing,
complementary therapies,
alternative therapies,
hospice,
medical care
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2004 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195167962 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167962.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Linda L. Barnes, editor
Boston University School of Medicine
Susan S. Sered, editor
Bar Ilan University
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