Is Religion Good for Your Health?: The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health (Haworth Religion and Mental...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 135 pages
• Published by: Routledge
• Edition: 1st Edition April 8, 1997
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0789001667
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0789001665
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 14.9 ounces

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 Description
The focus of this book is on physical and mental health as conventionally defined in relation to religion. Almost no attention is given to the 'softer' social and behavioral science research on the relationship of religion to such health-related subjects as peace of mind, happiness, morale, quality of life, and life satisfaction, although the general direction of findings on those subjects is similar. - from the Foreword. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Reader 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) (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.