Can Religion Heal Us?

Catalog description

What is the relationship between religion and health? Must the health professions be exclusively scientific? Can religion join with science to help us prevent and cure physical and mental illnesses? Many voices from the world?s various religious traditions say yes. Scientific medicine is increasingly open to collaboration with religion. This course surveys some of the ways religion and science are working together today to devise new therapies for healing diseases of the body and the mind, such as the rise of homeopathic and osteopathic medicine, the explosion of interest in meditation yoga in healing the body and mind, and the disease preventing power of vegan and vegetarian diets. Through class discussions and short essays, the course introduces new ideas from the frontiers of alternative medicine, as well as examining the guidelines offered in many of the world?s sacred texts for holistic living to prevent disease.