Religion and Medicine: Expanding Understandings of Human Flourishing

Dear Colleagues,

Religion and medicine have a complex and intertwined relationship both historically and in modern times. However, in Western culture, medicine’s sharp demarcation from religion has long been seen as a marker of progress and emblematic of modernity. The Cartesian-inspired conceptualization of the human person as an assemblage of component parts—each of which can be studied in isolation of the other dominated medical research and training beginning in the late nineteenth century. This atomization of illness and its location in the particulars of the body made the connection between illness and the person who is its “carrier” appear tangential, and its connection with the transpersonal—with family, community, environment, and spirituality—all but meaningless.

In recent years, a notable shift has taken place. The narrow conceptualization of health as the absence of disease is giving way to a more holistic understanding of health and healing. Across the globe, diverse societies and cultures are navigating the complexities of healing, both collectively and individually, and some more successfully than others. Within academia, interdisciplinary efforts from a wide range of fields and cultures have been important to help broaden and deepen our engagement with the interplay of religion and medicine and what that can mean for human flourishing.

We seek submissions from those whose work contributes to understanding “medicine” in its broadest terms, inclusive of physical, emotional, communal, spiritual, and ecological well-being, and which recognizes healing as a total experience—at once physiological, psychological, and existential. The scope of this Special Issue on Religion and Medicine will, as a necessity, be broad and seek to include diverse understandings of human flourishing, both historically and contemporarily.

Potential areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Transpersonal psychology, spirituality, and wellbeing;
• Psychedelics and sacred plant medicines;
• Suffering and meaning in religion and medicine;
• Religious perspectives on end-of-life care and medical assistance in dying;
• Postcolonialism, Medicine, and Religion;
• Hope and healing;
• Architecture and wellbeing;
• Suffering and the limits of Medicine;
• Illness narratives;
• Nature, animals, and ecological wellbeing;
• Sacred texts and healing;
• The role of religion in the history of medicine;
• Indigenous healing knowledge and practices;
• Somatic healing modalities;
• Sacred space, ritual, and healing;
• Contemplative practices and wellbeing.

Dr. Anne Vallely
Prof. Dr. Monnica T. Williams
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religion
• medicine
• spirituality
• holism
• ritual and ceremonial healing
• somatic healing
• psychedelic healing