Throughout his long and distinguished career in medicine and neuroscience, Dr. Joseph B. Martin has had the honor of delivering speeches to graduating students, professional societies, and academic conferences. As both a lifelong Anabaptist and prominent member of the scientific community, his talks often focus on how to balance the spiritual and logical sides of our being to become healthier and more productive members of society. Collected here are several of Dr. Martin’s speeches from over more than fifty years as an academic and doctor. They reflect his evolving views on science and spirituality, and explore how that confluence is at the center of some of today’s most important and controversial issues. Interspersed with commentary to provide further context and reflection, the talks reflect the changes we have seen as a society deeply entrenched in technological advances and religious tensions. Through them, Dr. Martin helps us to understand both the world around us, and the world within.
A perfect introduction to the connection between religious faith and physical and mental health! Faith, Medicine, and Science: A Festschrift in Honor of Dr. David B. Larson is a comprehensive collection of groundbreaking work from one of the principal figures in the establishment, expansion, and acceptance of scientific research at the interface of religion, spirituality, and health. Dr. Jeff Levin and Dr. Harold G. Koenig honor their late colleague with a retrospective of his writings on the impact of religious faith and identity on physical and mental health and on a variety of social issues, including criminal behavior, substance abuse, mental illness, juvenile delinquency, reproductive decisions, marital satisfaction, family functioning, and the quality of life. The book also features a concise history of the religion and health field, a biography of Dr. Larson, and tributes, essays, and remembrances from the leading figures in the field. Faith, Medicine, and Science honors Dr. Larson’s role in raising awareness of the health effects of religious faith and his vision and efforts in establishing coursework on religion and spirituality within undergraduate and graduate medical education programs. His body of theoretical and empirical writings serves as a permanent record of the powerful role played by religion and spirituality, and his work stands as a lasting contribution to science, medicine, and society. These articles combine with the book’s supplemental features to provide social and behavioral scientists, medical researchers, and clinicians with an essential resource for clinical research and education. Topics examined in Faith, Medicine, and Science include: the religious life of alcoholics religion, spirituality, and mortality the impact of religion on men’s blood pressure the systematic analysis of research on religious variables a systematic review of nursing home research religious affiliations in mental health research samples as compared with national samples the associations between dimensions of religious commitment and mental health and much more! Faith, Medicine, and Science: A Festschrift in Honor of Dr. David B. Larson documents the work of one of the most important writers on the interface of the human spirit and the healing arts. His death in 2002 at the age of 54 remains a profound loss, but through this book, his pioneering research will continue to serve as a thorough and accessible introduction to the religion and health field.
Throughout his long and distinguished career in medicine and neuroscience, Dr. Joseph B. Martin has had the honor of delivering speeches to graduating students, professional societies, and academic conferences. As both a lifelong Anabaptist and prominent member of the scientific community, his talks often focus on how to balance the spiritual and logical sides of our being to become healthier and more productive members of society. Collected here are several of Dr. Martin’s speeches from over more than fifty years as an academic and doctor. They reflect his evolving views on science and spirituality, and explore how that confluence is at the center of some of today’s most important and controversial issues. Interspersed with commentary to provide further context and reflection, the talks reflect the changes we have seen as a society deeply entrenched in technological advances and religious tensions. Through them, Dr. Martin helps us to understand both the world around us, and the world within.
Is religion to blame for deadly conflicts? Should religious behaviour be credited more often for acts of charity and altruism? In what ways are religious and ‘spiritual’ ideas, practices and identities surviving and changing as religion loses its political power in those parts of the world which are experiencing increasing secularization? Written by one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychology of religion and social identity, Psychological Perspectives on Religion and Religiosity offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary review of a century of research into the origins and consequences of religious belief systems and religious behaviour. The book employs a unique theoretical framework that combines the ‘new’ cognitive-evolutionary psychology of religion, examining the origins of religious ideas, with the ‘old’ psychology of religiosity, which looks at correlates and consequences. It examines a wide range of psychological variables and their relationship with religiosity. It is also provides fresh insights into classical topics in the psychology of religion, such as religious conversion, the relevance of Freud’s ideas about religion and religiosity, the meaning of secularization, and the crucial role women play in religion. The book concludes with the author’s reflections on the future for the psychology of religion as a field. Psychological Perspectives on Religion and Religiosity will be invaluable for academic researchers in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, and history worldwide. It will also be of great interest to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students across the social sciences.
""In Religion and Medicine, Dr. Jeff Levin, distinguished Baylor University epidemiologist, outlines the longstanding history of multifaceted interconnections between the institutions of religion and medicine. He traces the history of the encounter between these two institutions from antiquity through to the present day, highlighting a myriad of contemporary alliances between the faith-based and medical sectors. Religion and Medicine tells the story of: religious healers and religiously branded hospitals and healthcare institutions; pastoral professionals involved in medical missions, healthcare chaplaincy, and psychological counseling; congregational health promotion and disease prevention programs and global health initiatives; research studies on the impact of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices on physical and mental health, well-being, and healing; programs and centers for medical research and education within major universities and academic institutions; religiously informed bioethics and clinical decision-making; and faith-based health policy initiatives and advocacy for healthcare reform. Religion and Medicine is the first book to cover the full breadth of this subject. It documents religion-medicine alliances across religious traditions, throughout the world, and over the course of history. It summarizes a wide range of material of relevance to historians, medical professionals, pastors and theologians, bioethicists, scientists, public health educators, and policymakers. The product of decades of rigorous and focused research, Dr. Levin has produced the most comprehensive history of these developments and the finest introduction to this emerging field of scholarship.""--
The relationship between science and belief has been a prominent subject of public debate for many years, one that has relevance to everything from science communication, health and education to immigration and national values. Yet, sociological analysis of these subjects remains surprisingly scarce. This wide-ranging book critically reviews the ways in which religious and non-religious belief systems interact with scientific theories and practices. Contributors explore how, for some secularists, ‘science’ forms an important part of social identity. Others examine how many contemporary religious movements justify their beliefs by making a claim upon science. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the United States, the book shows how debates about science and belief are firmly embedded in political conflict, class, community and culture.
At the end of a five-year journey to find out what religious Americans think about science, Ecklund and Scheitle emerge with the real story of the relationship between science and religion in American culture. Based on the most comprehensive survey ever done-representing a range of religious traditions and faith positions-Religion vs. Science is a story that is more nuanced and complex than the media and pundits would lead us to believe. The way religious Americans approach science is shaped by two fundamental questions: What does science mean for the existence and activity of God? What does science mean for the sacredness of humanity? How these questions play out as individual believers think about science both challenges stereotypes and highlights the real tensions between religion and science. Ecklund and Scheitle interrogate the widespread myths that religious people dislike science and scientists and deny scientific theories. Religion vs. Science is a definitive statement on a timely, popular subject. Rather than a highly conceptual approach to historical debates, philosophies, or personal opinions, Ecklund and Scheitle give readers a facts-on-the-ground, empirical look at what religious Americans really understand and think about science.
Religious beliefs and attitudes have long been recognized as playing an important role in sexual functioning, but the relationship between religion and sexual behavior has rarely been studied in a comprehensive way. The essays in this volume bring the views of sex counsellors, therapists. theologians, and bioethicists to bear on the relationship between religion and sexuality. A major theme emerging from these essays is that religion and counselling need to learn from one another. Religious traditions, at the popular or theological levels, are often marked by ignorance and misinformation about sexuality and can benefit by the insights of those who work closely with patients in medical and counselling settings. Counsellors, in turn, need to develop a sensitivity to past and present religious attitudes toward sexuality in order to assist their patients achieve sexual health.
This book assembles essays by thinkers who were at the center of the German post World War II development of ethical thought in medicine. It records their strategies for overcoming initial resistance among physicians and philosophers and (in the East) politicians. This work traces their different approaches, such as socialist versus liberal bioethics; illustrates their attempt to introduce a culture of dialogue in medicine; and examines their moral ambiguities inherent to the institutionalization of bioethics and in law. Furthermore, the essays in this work pay special attention to the problem of ethics expertise in the context of a pluralism, which the intellectual mainstream of the country seeks to reduce to “varieties of post-traditionalism". Finally, this book addresses the problem of “patient autonomy”,and highlights the difficulty of harmonizing commitment to professional integrity with the project of enhancing physician’s responsiveness to suffering patients. As these essays illustrate, the development of bioethics in Germany does not follow a linear line of progressiveness, but rather retains a sense of the traditional ethos of the guild. An ethos, however, that is challenged by moral pluralism in such a way that, even today, still requires adequate solutions. A must read for all academics interested in the origins and the development of bioethics.
