Spirituality, Medicine & Health - Homepage

The aim of this website is to help visitors learn about the complex entanglements among religious traditions and spirituality, medical traditions and healing modalities, and norms for physical and mental health. Leading issues include (i) the history of the medical traditions of China, India, the Middle East, and the West, including the metaphysical frameworks that inform those traditions; (ii) the complex controversy over spirituality and health research and attempting to decide whether and how the efficacy of healing modalities is to be evaluated; (iii) how western biomedicine interacts with the array of medical traditions and spiritually inspired healing modalities that thrive in the West; and (iv) philosophical, theological, and ethical questions about norms for mental and physical health and comparing metaphysical frameworks for health and healing.

Reviews of Books and Articles

These are brief reviews of an extremely diverse array of books and articles related to spirituality, medicine, and health. The reviews have been produced by Boston University graduate students.

Interpretative Research Essays

These are research papers aiming to make a contribution to the scholarly community's attempts to construct a comprehensive interpretation of spirituality, medicine, and health. The research essays have been produced by Boston University graduate students.

Bibliographies

There are lists of books and articles introducing various aspects of spirituality, medicine, and health.

Course Syllabi

This is a collection of syllabi on various aspects of spirituality, medicine, and health. Syllabi are welcome; please email the contact address.

Web Links

This is a compilation of reviews of sites from all over the World Wide Web related (more or sometimes less) to spirituality, medicine, and health.

Popular Culture

This is a collection of reviews of novels, movies, and other popular-culture items that centrally feature spirituality, medicine, and health.