Religion – broadly defined – plays a major role in individual and communal approaches to health in local and global settings: how people and communities understand life fully lived, process sickness and fight disease and dis-ease; why and how people develop and access conventional and non-conventional healthcare practices and procedures that enhance individual and communal wellness; how individuals and communities cope with collective trauma and build hope; and how people create, understand, and administer integrated healthcare for human and environmental flourishing. There is a rich historical and contemporary relationship between religion, health, and healthcare systems. We seek to draw on this rich legacy to engage a variety of topics:
- Religion and Phytomedicine
- Religion, the Arts, and Health
- Religion, Disability and Health
- Religion and Palliative Care
- Religion and Mental Health
- Religion, Trauma and Hope
- Religion and Environmental Health
- Religion, Gender, and Health
- Religion, Race/Ethnicity, and Health
- Religion, Sports and Health
The Forum is an offshoot of the Harvard Global Health Catalyst (HGHC), a cross institutional program at Harvard, with overall goal of catalyzing high impact international collaborations to eliminate global health disparities. Since 2017, the HGHC has hosted “Religion and Health” sessions at its annual summit event. These sessions attracted interest from religious professionals, faith-based leaders, and researchers across multiple disciplines. Having participated in those sessions and contributed to an edited volume on the summit proceedings (Wilfred Ngwa and Paul Nguyen eds., Global Oncology: Harvard Global Health Catalyst Summit Lecture Notes, 2017), Dr. Kenneth Ngwa developed and taught a course on “Religion and Health” (Fall 2018) at Drew University Theological School, with a guest presentation on cancer research, by Dr. Wilfred Ngwa. The success of these sessions necessitates more robust and expansive planning, resourcing, scholarship, and partnership development.
The Forum is partly rooted in legacy of Drew’s Center for Christianities in Global Contexts (CCGC). Established in 2006 with a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Center supported research, reflection, and collaborative engagement around Christianity’s vastly diverse expressions in an increasingly complex world. Shaping the mission of CCGC was the urgent need to better understand the forces of globalization and pluralism that shape Christianity today; the demographic, spiritual, and cultural shifts animating and defining the life and ministries of the global church; the deep religious, historical, and cultural heritage that informs interreligious dialogue and collaboration; and a commitment to promoting the study of the critical and constructive roles that Christian faith and mission play in promoting ecumenism, religious and ethnic pluralism, and social and ecological justice.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Indeed, WHO sees “the extension to all peoples of the benefits of medical, psychological and related knowledge” as “essential to the fullest attainment of health.” Despite major advances in modern scientific medicine, including the eradication of some diseases, the challenges of global and public health – the health of populations – continue to escape the capacities and resources of any singular discipline. Chronic diseases remain unsolved; historically marginalized communities suffer from social illnesses and internalized traumas that require medical, religious, and cultural competencies to diagnose and address; and the wider experiences of human suffering, ageing, and death continue to raise questions about the value and meaning of life. These questions touch on the human body and its constituent parts: the heart, the mind, the spirit, the brain, the womb, etc.; impact the social body, with its constituent parts: culture, art and music, ethnicity and race, history, education, family, etc.; and affect the ecological body, with its constituent parts: the water, the plants, the food, the economy, etc. How might religious theories and praxis, faith and action, contribute to proper holistic diagnoses and responses to these BIG issues of life and health and meaning?
