Religion and Healing in America
Price:
$40.00 (01)Description
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 our 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 richly comprehensive collection of essays examining this new reality. It brings together, for the first time, scholars from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives to explore the relatively uncharted field of religious healing as understood and practiced in diverse cultural communities in the United States. The book will be an invaluable resource for students of anthropology, religious studies, American studies, and ethnic studies, health care professionals, clergy, and anyone interested in the changing American cultural landscape.
Reviews
"A remarkable work that provides important insights into the diversity of religion and healing in the United States." --Nova Religio
"Wide-ranging. Its wealth of descriptive examples span the major ethnic and immigrant groups within the contemporary United States, most major world religious systems, and recent cultural trends such as New Age religious activities and rising interest in complementary-alternative medicine." --American Anthropologist
"A rich overview of religious healing in numerous contexts. A valuable overview of the diversity of religious healing approaches in U.S. society." --Medical Anthropology Quarterly
"Compelling and comprehensive, Barnes and Sered introduce u to the breadth of the field and a range of analytical approaches that will both intrigue and provoke academics in further debate. Research students and academics will be grateful to the editors for the care and attention lavished on this volume." --Reviews in Religion and Theology
"A brilliant contribution to the qualitative study of religion and health.... This volume could be a core text in an undergraduate or graduate-level course on religion and healing in society, ritual studies, or field methods." --Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Product Details
552 pages; 22 halftones; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-516796-2ISBN10: 0-19-516796-1About the Author(s)
Linda L. Barnes
directs the Boston Healing Landscape Project, an institute for the study of religions, medicines, and healing, at Boston University School of Medicine, where she is on the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics. She is a historian, medical anthropologist, and religion scholar whose work bridges these disciplines.
Susan S. Sered
is the research director of the Religion, Health and Healing Initiative at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions, and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bar Ilan University in Israel. Her work spans the fields of medical anthropology, religious studies, and gender studies. Sered's award-winning books include Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women
(OUP, 1994).
