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Handbook of Religion and Health
by Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, and David B. Larson, 712 pp, $65, ISBN 0-19-511866-9, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2001.
JAMA. 2001;286:465-466.
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Organization and critique of empirical research on the relationship between religion and health is a monumental task. It is, however, important and eminently useful given the universality of religion in our lives and its influence on our behavior.
The authors, well-regarded researchers in this maturing field, bring to their task a conviction that religion and spirituality generally have positive effects on health. Their analysis of more than 1200 studies and 400 reviews is meticulous and balanced.
In the introduction, they describe the context and the process by which they identify and evaluate research on religion and health outcomes in three categories: positive relationship, unrelated, and negative relationship. For ease of reading, each chapter includes a description of each study cited, a summary, and a brief concluding statement.
Two central concepts, religion and spirituality, are functionally defined for the analysis:
Religion is an organized system of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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