Religion and Health: Pitfalls and Possibilities (10/24/12)

Watch video of Keith Meador presenting “Religion and Health: Pitfalls and Possibilities” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute lecture series. The course reviews the historical context and current research and conversations regarding religion and health in American culture. We will examine the significance and implications of our “therapeutic culture” and how the religion and health conversation interacts with this phenomenon. The contemporary religion and health movement has frequently distorted our interpretations and understandings of both religion and health doing a service to neither. While considering these potential pitfalls and distortions which only perpetuate our captivity to the excesses and deficiencies of modern medicine, we will examine the possibilities as to how religion and health – conceptualized in a public health framework of community and formation in practices of caring – can offer a theologically thoughtful and informed lens through which to engage alternative perspectives on health and human flourishing even in the midst of the inevitable frailty and finitude of human existence.