RLGN 273: Religion and Healing in the U.S.
Spring 2008, TR 1:15-2:30/Sears 540
Instructor: Professor Joy R. Bostic
Email: joy.bostic@case.edu
Office: Mather House 303
Phone: 368-2382
Office Hours: T/R 3-4 and by appt.
Course Description and Requirements: In this course we will engage in a cross-cultural
exploration of the relationships between religion, health and healing in the United States.
Drawing upon interdisciplinary approaches that include religious and ritual studies, medical
anthropology, history, ethnic and gender studies, we will examine diverse health-related world
views and definitions for health and well being. We will also investigate religious views of
personhood and how different traditions interpret and assign meaning to illness and suffering. In
addition, we will explore how individuals and groups utilize healing systems and religious
practices to address matters of disease and affliction. Throughout the course we will discuss the
implications of the issues raised for health care systems and providers. Course requirements
are as follows:
1. In Class Participation (15%): In this course we are all members of a community.
Each of us is an integral part of this community and its collective process. It is
important, therefore, to be present and on time for all class sessions and to have
completed all of the assigned readings. Please bring assigned readings to class so that
we can refer to them during our discussions. Absences, except in the case of
emergencies, must be arranged in advance. Attendance will be taken each day. I will
allow two unexcused absences when I am notified in advance.
2. Oral Assignment on Healing Perspective (10%): Interview someone in your family
or local community about their views on healing, suffering and illness. Give a five
minute oral report on your findings.
3. Short Written Assignment—What Kind of Researcher Am I? (10%) due on Feb.
14th.
4. Journal (20%): You will write weekly reflections on readings, presentations, field
trips, etc. I will collect the journals periodically to check the progress of your work.
Completed Journals are due on April 17th.
5. Oral Presentation (15%): You will give a 10-15 minute oral presentation on your
final project.
6. Project Paper (30%): You will write a 12-15 page paper on a field project. Your
final project paper is due May 1st.
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Required Texts
Linda L. Barns and Susan S. Sered, eds. Religion and Healing in America. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005.
Anne Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her
American Doctors and a Collision of Cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
1998.
Stephanie Mitchem. African American Folk Healing. New York: New York University
Press, 2007.
Course Schedule
Introduction: Strategies, Methods, Issues and Definitions
Jan. 15
Course Introduction
Jan. 17
Readings: Susan S. Sered and Linda L. Barnes, “Introduction,” and Harold G.
Koenig, “Afterword: a Physician’s Reflections,” ch. 31 in Religion and Healing in
America, Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered, eds. (Hereafter, “Barnes and
Sered”)
Jan. 22
Readings: Eric J. Bailey, “Medical Anthropology and Healthcare” in Medical
Anthropology and African American Health; “Religion and the Use of Health
Services” in Handbook of Religion and Health, Harold G. Koenig, et. al., eds.
Jan. 24
Readings: Aana Marie Vigen, “U.S. Healthcare 101: What Everyone Ought to
Know about How U.S. Inhabitants are Treated (or Not)” in Women, Ethics and
Inequality in U.S. Healthcare
Health-Related World Views: Healing, Suffering and Definitions of Personhood
Jan. 29
Readings: Bailey “Ethnic Populations in the United States: Health Beliefs and
Treatment Action,” and “African American Alternative Medicine,” in African
American Alternative Medicine; Janelle S. Taylor, “Confronting ‘Culture’ in
Medicine’s Culture of No Culture,” in Academic Medicine, June 2003
**Oral Reports on Healing Perspectives**
Jan. 31
Readings: David Kinsley, “Healing in Contemporary North American
Christianity,” in Health, Healing, and Religion: A Cross-Cultural Perspective;
Kaja Finkler, “The Healing Genes,” ch. 29 in Barnes and Sered
**Oral Reports on Healing Perspectives**
Domestic and Public Sites of Healing
Feb. 5
Readings: Robert A. Orsi, “ The Cult of the Saints and the Reimagination of the
Space and Time of Sickness in 20th Century American Catholicism,” Bobbie
McKay and Lewis A. Musil, “The ‘Spiritual Healing Project’: A Study of
Spiritual Healing in the United Church of Christ,” chs. 1-2 in Barnes and Sered
Feb. 7
Readings: Jennifer L. Hollis, “Healing into Wholeness in the Episcopal Church,”
and Patrick A. Polk, et. al, “Miraculous Migrants to the City of Angels:
Perceptions of El Santo Niño de Atocha and San Simón as Sources of Health and
Healing,” chs. 5 and 7 in Barnes and Sered
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Gender and Structural Violence
Feb. 12
Readings: “Communing with the Dead: Spiritual and Cultural Healing in
Chicano/a Communities,” and Thomas J. Csordas, “Gender and Healing in
Navajo Society,” chs. 10 and 18 in Barnes and Sered
Feb. 14
Readings: Gastón Espinosa, “’God Made a Miracle in My Life’ Latino
Pentecostal Healing in the Borderlands,” and Stephanie Y. Mitchem, “Jesus is my
Doctor: Healing and Religion in African American Women’s Lives,” chs. 7 and
17 in Barnes and Sered; Gastón Espinosa, “Tongues and Healing at the Azusa
Street Revival,” in Religions of the United States in Practice, Vol. 2
**What Kind of Researcher Am I? Written Report Due**
Feb. 19
Readings: Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (Excerpts); “Making Wanga:
Reality Constructions and the Magical Manipulation of Power,” ch. 10 in Barnes
and Sered
Feb. 21
Video: Legacy of the Spirits
Mixing and Matching: Conflict, Synergy, and Appropriation
Feb. 26
Readings: Stephanie Y. Mitchem, chs. 4 and 6 in African American Folk Healing
(Hereafter, “Mitchem”)
**Project Proposals Due**
Feb. 28
Readings: Mitchem, ch.7 and “Conclusion”
March 4
Readings: Ann Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down; Phua
Xiong, et. al. “Hmong Shamanism: Animist Spiritual Healing in America’s Urban
Heartland,” ch. 27 in Barnes and Sered
March 6
Readings: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, cont.
March 10-14 No Class--Spring Break
March 18
Readings: Claude F. Jacobs, “Rituals of Healing in African American Spiritual
Churches,” Robert Fuller, “Subtle Energies and the American Metaphysical
Tradition,” chs. 20 and 23 in Barnes and Sered
March 20
Edith Turner, “Taking Seriously the Nature of Religious Healing in America,” ch.
24 in Barnes and Sered
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Healing Narratives: Health Care Decisions and Healing Practices
March 25
Readings: Aana Marie Vigen, Excerpts from Women, Ethics and Inequality in
U.S. Healthcare
March 27
Readings: Susan Kuner, et. al., Speak the Language of Healing:
April 1
Readings: Selections from Religious Traditions and Health Care Decisions
Handbook Series
April 3
Readings: Selections from Religious Traditions and Health Care Decisions
Handbook Series, cont.
April 8
Readings: TBA
Conversations with Practitioners
April 10
Readings: TBA
Conversations with Practitioners, cont.
April 15/17
Oral Presentations on Student Research Projects
**Completed Journals Due: April 17th **
April 22
Oral Presentations on Student Research Projects
April 24
Course Wrap-Up
**Project Papers Due May 1st**
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