Religion and Health: A Synthesis

The present review will be concerned with the relationships between religion and health. Our principal purpose will be to review the empirical research literature on this relationship, relating different forms of religious participation, especially religious service attendance, to various health outcomes. However, we will also briefly consider theological and religious traditions and themes concerning health, healing, and wholeness. We will further review interventions related to religious communities that promote health; and we will consider relations between the empirical literature on religion and health and the theological and religious traditions, and discuss where there is convergence, where there is tension, and where various open questions for further reflection and research remain. We will conclude with a number of summary propositions attempting to capture the major themes of the present survey.