Your doctor’s MD emerged from the Dark Ages, where practicing rational “human medicine” was seen as an expression of faith and maintaining one’s health a religious duty.
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Articles on Religion and health
Displaying 1 - 20 of 24 articles
Chaplaincy emerged as a professional field in the mid-20th century. In the years since, their roles have evolved and they have also come to include many diverse religious traditions.
Father Damien’s legacy has inspired health providers and humanitarians for over a century.
Churches’ struggles to respond to the plague and constant warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries helped shape the kinds of Christianity in the world today.
Responses to COVID-19 health guidelines have been polarized, including in churches. But religious communities have a long history of involvement in public health.
Fear of prosecution and a history of distrust toward the government have contributed to some fundamentalist groups’ views of medicine.
Ethiopia’s main religions need to take an emotional distance from politics and find a neutral space so they can get moral clarity.
A historian of the Bible in American life explains how Bible verses are being picked out of context to make a case for the anti-vaxxer movement.
A history of how African American congregations in Philadelphia weathered crises over 200 years.
Are masks a religious matter, or is religion being used to suit people’s political agendas? A scholar of Christian conservatism and culture argues both can be true.
A choral conductor and scholar of sacred music explains what’s missing from church worship with singing banned due to the pandemic – and why live choir rehearsals are still a ways off
If worshippers congregate outside amid coronavirus fears, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Early settlers used outside worship to sanctify colonized land, and slaves relied on it to meet in secret.
From magic bowls to holy shirts, Muslim cultures used various devices to protect the user from harm starting in the 11th century. Many of these objects were beautifully designed, too.
Given that some people look to religious authorities not health officials in times of crisis, faith leaders can promote hand-washing and social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus.
A scholar went on a Voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and learned how an oppressive slave past has shaped its religious present.
For centuries, Westerners viewed Islam as an inherently violent religion. But the struggle today, for all religions, including Christianity, is between liberals and conservatives, fundamentalists and moderates, reason and revelation.
For a biologist like me, the interesting questions about religion have always been where did it come from and why did it evolve? I taught evolutionary biology in a Catholic University in the most Catholic…
Making a comparison between male and female genital cutting is usually dismissed or condemned. When, for example, the Council of Europe recently passed a motion declaring both female genital cutting (FGC…
The Council of Europe’s resolution earlier this month to prohibit the circumcision of infant boys for religious reasons has ignited another round to the “foreskin wars”. This time it’s about the rights…
Recently released labour force figures have shown a rise in unemployment figures to 5.8% and, with Treasury’s budget update slating a rise to 6.25% by the end of the financial year, the future doesn’t…
Top contributors
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Associate Professor of History, Binghamton University, State University of New York
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Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Canberra
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Associate Professor in Human Geography, University of Wollongong
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PhD candidate, The University of Melbourne
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PhD Candidate, Western Sydney University
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Associate Professor, La Trobe University
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Assistant professor, University of Groningen
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Visiting Research Fellow, Goldsmiths, University of London
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Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Salford
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Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
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Assistant Professor of Church and Community Ministries, Baylor University
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Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis University
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Visiting Lecturer, University of Roehampton
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Professor of American History, Messiah College
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Director of Programs, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, Brandeis University
