Course Number:

Credit Hours:

4

Course Title:

Religious Perspectives on Health and Healing

Course Description:

Explores aspects of the historical, religious, and cultural context for contemporary alternatives in health care, beginning with an examination of several examples of traditional healing practices and their accompanying religious and philosophical views about human life. Explores this “holistic” tradition in two frames of reference: the ascendancy of scientific rationalism over religion; and the takeover, by male-dominated professions, of healing functions that society has traditionally assigned to women (that is, the rise of obstetrics and the suppression of midwifery). Emphasizes major women healers of the nineteenth century. Includes some contemporary efforts at integration of scientific and traditional values in the modern health-care system.