Is Religion Good for Your Health?: The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health (Haworth Religion and Mental Health) [Hardcover]

Harold G Koenig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789001667 | ISBN-13: 978-0789001665 | Publication Date: April 8, 1997 | Edition: 1

Is Religion Good for Your Health? takes you deep into the heart of the ageless debate on the importance of religion and faith to physical and mental health. On the one hand, you will learn about important research findings from cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention studies that have demonstrated positive effects of religious belief on both mental and physical health. On the other hand, you will learn how the vast clinical experiences of leading health experts suggest that religion can have negative effects on health.

Integral to the book’s exploration of the relationship between health and religion are the trends that have occurred in society over the last century. You will learn about significant demographic changes, changes in health and health care, and shifts in values, attitudes, and religious conviction, all of which have direct implications for health care providers, the clergy, the “baby boomers,” and older adults. From Author Harold Koenig, a leading expert on religion and health who has frequently been interviewed by major broadcasting networks such as ABC, National Public Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, CBS, and “Ivanhoe Broadcast News,” you will also learn about:

• pathological uses of religion
• the need for cooperation and collaboration between health and religious professionals
• studies on the relationship of religious beliefs and practice to physical conditions such as blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and cancer
• links between religious behavior and depression, anxiety, and drug use
• the waning of religion’s influence in America
• first-hand accounts from patients who have faced painful and/or life-threatening illness
  
  As Is Religion Good for Your Health? analyzes the pathological aspects of religion, you will begin to understand how religious beliefs have the capacity to strongly influence people’s lives and their health, whether positively or negatively. Health care providers, public policy experts, religious professionals, medical researchers, and medical students will find the book’s overview of the issues at stake, particularly the implications for our public health care system, crucial to the advancement of health care practice into the next century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While folk wisdom has always taught that physical health is intimately connected to spiritual health, in the past year or so there have appeared books by doctors, notable among them Larry Dossey's Prayer is Good Medicine (1996), which have used scientific methods to measure and quantify the effects of Christian religious practice on health. Using a variety of polls and surveys, Koenig attempts to measure the effect that such religious practices as church attendance and spiritually based programs like Twelve Step programs have on the mental and physical health of their practitioners. In the first chapters of the book, Koenig proposes to offer an examination of the often mysterious relationship between religion and health. However, the book soon descends into a miasma of poorly applied statistics. For example, Koenig cites a number of polls whose scientific basis is lightly touched upon and which reduce the concept of religiosity to regular church attendance. Koenig's conclusions are often plagued by generalization, as when he cites on one page spiritual recovery programs like Alcoholics Anonymous as evidence of the benefits of religion and decries them on the next page as evidence of the simplistic character of New Age spirituality. While the book raises an important issue, it fails to do the issue justice.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (April 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789001667
• ISBN-13: 978-0789001665
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,842,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Koenig completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, his medical school training at the University of California at San Francisco, and his geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University Medical Center. He is board certified in general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry and geriatric medicine, and is on the faculty at Duke as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Associate Professor of Medicine, and is on the faculty at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as a Distinguished Adjunct Professor. He is also a registered nurse. Dr. Koenig is Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center, and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion, with over 350 scientific peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and nearly 40 books in print or in preparation. He is considered by biomedical scientists as one of the world's top experts on religion and health (http://www.biomedexperts.com/Concept.bme/18754/Religion). His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on dozens of national and international TV news programs (including ABC's World News Tonight, The Today Show and two episodes of Good Morning America), nearly a hundred national or international radio programs, and hundreds of newspapers and magazines (including Reader's Digest, Parade Magazine, Newsweek, Time, and Guidepost). Dr. Koenig has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (1998) and U.S. House of Representatives (2008) concerning the benefits of religion and spirituality on public health, and travels widely to give seminars and workshops on the topic. His latest books are (1) Faith and Mental Health (2005), (2) In the Wake of Disaster (2006), (3) Spirituality in Patient Care (2007), Medicine, Religion and Health (2008), Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry (2009), Handbook of Religion and Health, Second Edition (Jan/Feb 2012, Oxford University Press), and Spirituality and Health Research: Methodology, Measurement, Analyses, and Resources (2011).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was surprised by what I read in this book., December 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Is Religion Good for Your Health?: The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health (Haworth Religion and Mental Health) (Paperback)

The research is surprising. What we mental health professionals have been presuming for all these years seems false! Religion, according to this author, does appear to have benefits. I'd like to read more about this area.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Health Care Perspective, August 16, 2007

By 

S. L. Horvat "diabetes nurse" (Gary, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is Religion Good for Your Health?: The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health (Haworth Religion and Mental Health) (Paperback)

Working in the Health Care field, I try to help individuals cope with chronic health conditions as well as empower them to live life to the fullest. This book provides an excellent bird's eye view of how we all use different methods to help us cope and live high quality lives. For too long the healthcare field has not paid enough attention to a person's spirit. If you are unhappy, it affects your ability to care for yourself physically. A healthy spirit can make a large difference in your self care abilities.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book, March 4, 2000

By 

Emily Monroy (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is Religion Good for Your Health?: The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health (Haworth Religion and Mental Health) (Hardcover)

Koenig's book has the rare quality of being both readable and scientific. He presents credible data showing how religion benefits people's mental and physical health. This approach is quite unlike the anti-scientific rant of anti-religious treatises like Wendell Watters' book Deadly Doctrine, which relies mainly on anecdotal evidence, personal bias, and theoretical speculation. Instead, Koenig uses controlled studies to prove his points. I'd give him a few extra brownie points for managing to show a Christian attitude to people like Watters, whom I find maddening.