Conference on Medicine and Religion
Examining the Foundations of Medicine and Religion
April 13-15, 2018, St. Louis Union Station Hotel, St. Louis, MO
Over the past century, there have been repeated calls for medicine to incorporate religion or “spirituality”. Some have called for clinicians and clergy to work together in order to care for patients holistically. Others have looked to religious traditions for content to help clinicians practice ethically. Still others have looked to religious communities and spiritual practices to help patients cope with and find meaning in their suffering. Each of these highlights a widespread sense that modern medicine alone cannot help people make sense of and respond well to disability, illness, and suffering.
But on what basis can medicine and religion engage one another? The 2018 Conference on Medicine and Religion takes up this and related questions to explore the foundations of medicine and religion. Is contemporary medicine beholden to philosophical commitments that are rivals to or in harmony with Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other world religions? Do efforts to incorporate religion into contemporary medicine lead to unwanted distortions of one or both? Can contemporary medicine answer questions about meaning and purpose that arise at the bedside? Should religious communities develop their own understandings and practices of the healing arts? Do medicine and religion share foundations on which they can build and work together?
Join us in St. Louis where health care practitioners, scholars, religious leaders, and students will consider these questions in light of different religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions.
Register online at www.medicineandreligion.com.
(Early registration ends on March 16.)
Featuring Speakers –
Wendy Cadge, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University
Rebecca Messbarger, PhD, Director of Medical Humanities, Washington University
Daniel Sulmasy, MD, PhD, MACP, Senior Research Scholar, The Kennedy Institute,
Georgetown University
Tyler VanderWeele, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health
….Over one hundred twenty-five papers, panels, posters and workshops will be presented.
Conference Sponsors – Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center; Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality, Harvard University; Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine, and Initiative on Theology, Medicine and Culture, Duke University; Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University; the Ohio State University Center for Bioethics & Medical Humanities; Institute for Faith and Learning, Baylor University; and Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.
