Theological Perspectives and Integration of Religion and Spirituality into Health Care

Modern medicine makes use of the natural sciences and their methods, which forgo the “God hypothesis”, explaining sickness and health „etsi Deus non daretur“. Up to modernity, the cultural history of sickness and health is, to a great extent, the history of religion. Only the advent of modern medicine, based on natural science, leads to a separation of medicine and religion, and thus also of healing and salvation – unless, that is, the elevation of health to the highest good is to be understood as a new form of religion, and as a search for transcendence in the immanence of a society that suffers from a loss of transcendence. Yet there are also conspicuous religious connotations among the different varieties of alternative or holistic medicine, which are directed against so called Western academic medicine (“Schulmedizin”). Meanwhile, however, in medical science there is renewed interest in the religious dimension of sickness and health. In recent years, a number of investigations have been published in medical journals, which suggest a positive influence of religion and spirituality on the healing process and on the individual’s coping with sickness. Over the last years, the number of publications on spirituality, religion and faith in medical and nursing science journals has risen dramatically. In 1995, the World Health Organization incorporated the complex, “spirituality/religion/personal beliefs”, as a separate section into their survey for the ascertainment of health-related quality of life, since many patients considered it to be important (WHO survey WHOQOL-100). In some circumstances, patients and their families need not only psychological but also pastoral assistance. Cooperation with hospital