This book explains how and why complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) entered the American biomedical mainstream and won acceptance from evangelical Christians—although much of CAM is religious, but not distinctively Christian, and lacks scientific evidence of efficacy and safety. CAM providers make religious or spiritual assumptions about why CAM works: assumptions informed by religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism (Daoism) forged in Asia, or metaphysical spiritual traditions developed in Europe and North America. Before the 1960s, most of the practices considered in this book ... More

This book explains how and why complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) entered the American biomedical mainstream and won acceptance from evangelical Christians—although much of CAM is religious, but not distinctively Christian, and lacks scientific evidence of efficacy and safety. CAM providers make religious or spiritual assumptions about why CAM works: assumptions informed by religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism (Daoism) forged in Asia, or metaphysical spiritual traditions developed in Europe and North America. Before the 1960s, most of the practices considered in this book—yoga, chiropractic, acupuncture, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, meditation, martial arts, homeopathy, and anti-cancer diets—if encountered at all—were generally dismissed as medically and religiously questionable. What causes practices once classified as illegitimate for medical and religious reasons to be redefined as legitimate routes to physical and spiritual wellness? Promoters of holistic healthcare, or integrative medicine, strategically marketed products to consumers poised to accept effective, spiritually wholesome therapies. Once-suspect health practices gained approval as they were re-categorized as non-religious (though generically spiritual) healthcare, fitness, or scientific techniques, rather than as religious rituals. Although CAM claims are similar to religious claims, CAM gained cultural legitimacy because it is interpreted as science instead of religion. Healthcare consumers, providers, policymakers, and courts need to know not just whether CAM works, but why it is supposed to work because CAM raises ethical and legal questions of informed consent and religious establishment—affecting values of personal autonomy, self-determination, religious equality and voluntarism—in biomedical ethics, tort law, and constitutional law.