Health And Medicine In The Methodist Tradition

As E. Brooks Holifield notes in his introduction, “John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, would have relished the opportunity to write this volume. He recognized the power of religious traditions, and he thought that issues of health and medicine were profoundly interwoven into the texture of religious faith. All ten themes that have concerned [this series] - healing and well-being, suffering and madness, passages and sexuality, dying and caring, morality and dignity - were among the topics that Wesley believed should interest Christians.” In the attempt to show how a Wesleyan understanding of theology might inform a modern Methodist sensibility, the author has structured his treatment of Health and Medicine in the Methodist Tradition around the polarities of health and healing, holiness and happiness, penalty and promise, love and law, restraint and responsibility, and possibility and limit. These are not to be construed as opposites or as mutually exclusive extremes. Each member of each pair both checks and enriches the other. They provide a way of establishing boundaries; they mark the way of a journey - “the way of salvation,” or the way of love.

Frequently in partnership, but sometimes at odds, religious institutions and public health institutions work to improve the well-being of their communities. There is increasing awareness among public health professionals and the general public that the social conditions of poverty, lack of education, income inequality, poor working conditions, and experiences of discrimination play a dominant role in determining health status. But this broad view of the social determinants of health has largely ignored the role of religious practices and institutions in shaping the life conditions of billions around the globe. In Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health, leading scholars in the social sciences, public health, and religion address this omission by examining the embodied sacred practices of the world's religions, the history of alignment and tension between religious and public health institutions, the research on the health impact of religious practice throughout the life course, and the role of religious institutions in health and development efforts around the globe. In addition, the volume explores religion's role in the ongoing epidemics of HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer's disease, as well as preparations for an influenza pandemic. Together, these groundbreaking essays help complete the picture of the social determinants of health by including religion, which has until now been an invisible determinant.

Publisher description

Inward and Outward Health is the first interdisciplinary scholarly collection to provide an in-depth and new perspective on the medical and scientific activity of one of the eighteenth century's most successful and controversial theological figures, John Wesley. These essays, written by established scholars in the field, convincingly correct a persistent view of Wesley as an irresponsible religious enthusiast who confused medical science and theology. The reader is given here instead a picture of someone who was a crucial admirer of Enlightenment principles: a deeply pious individual who could minister to the physical and spiritual welfare of the poor, applying remedies for the body or prayer for the soul as and when appropriate.