Handbook of Religion and Health: A Century of Research Reviewed

Summary

Title: Handbook of Religion and Health: A Century of Research Reviewed
Author: Harold George Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, David B. Larson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195118669

Pro:
•  Most comprehensive resource on relationship between religion and health
•  Extensive information on all aspects of religion, health, and illness

Con:
•  Probably not appropriate for the average reader - audience is more for professionals
•  Some readers will be disappointed by paucity of evidence showing positive health benefits of religion

Description:
•  Review of over 1,600 studies and reviews on the effects of religion on health
•  Describes, critiques, and ranks the methodology and conclusions of studies
•  Every aspect of the relationship between health and religion addressed

Book Review

Because medicine is currently an aspect of the biological and physical sciences, we can’t really decide what sort of relationship religion and medicine can and should have without a close reliance upon scientific research. But how can anyone really get a handle on all of the research that has been done on this subject?

That’s where the recently published “Handbook of Religion and Health” comes in. Edited by Harold George Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, and David B. Larson, this book provides summaries and critiques of 1,600 different studies and reviews (done through the year 2000) on the relationship between healthcare and religious beliefs. All of these studies are explained, their strengths and weaknesses noted, and they are ranked according to methodology and results.

Here, in one volume, we have the most comprehensive resource on such research available. What medical topics are addressed? There are obvious issues like depression, anxiety, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, and immune system dysfunction. The book also deals with topics like delinquency, crime, marital happiness, personality traits, and many other things which are directly relevant to health and illness.

Although it isn’t possible to draw any simple and easy conclusions from such a massive amount of data, the authors do argue that on the whole the data tends to support a positive relationship between medical care and religion:

“...religious beliefs and practices rooted within established religious traditions were found to be consistently associated with better health and predicted better health over time; in a few clinical trials, groups that received spiritual interventions experienced superior clinical outcomes compared with controls.”

Handbook of Religion and Health: A Century of Research Reviewed

At the same time, however, the authors admit that only a few of the studies were actually designed to test for whether religion had any influence on health — that means any conclusions drawn from the other studies must be regarded as somewhat tenuous. In fact, most of the beneficial findings they report seem to be anecdotal or serendipitous — considering just how much research is covered, the book doesn’t provide a great deal of support for those sympathetic to the idea that religion is important to good health. This is bound to be a disappointment for some readers whose hopes are raised by some of the early comments, like those which appear in the Foreword promising a “new paradigm” that will be based upon the information in the text.

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