Religion and Medicine

Undergraduate / Graduate

This colloquium course introduces students to the anthropological study of religion and medicine, focusing on how cultural, moral, and spiritual frameworks shape understandings of illness, healing, suffering, and death. We will explore how communities interpret disease as having both physical and spiritual causes, and how healing practices-ranging from ritual and prayer to biomedical interventions-are embedded within social, ethical, and cosmological systems. Dying, brain death, and organ transplantation are examined as ethically and culturally contested domains, alongside experiences at the threshold of life, such as near-death events and terminal lucidity. We will also consider suffering and disability as socially and spiritually meaningful experiences that inform caregiving, moral responsibility, and community obligations. The course is structured to support students across disciplines, including those in medicine, clinical research, and pastoral care, who seek to understand the intersections of religion, culture, and medical practice.