Faith Interface

Spirituality, Religion and Health

Dr Harold Koenig: Spirituality, Religion and Health

Dr Koenig is founder and former director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality and Health, and is founding Co-Director of the current Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center. The Center was founded in 2007 to promote scholarship and research on the influence that spirituality, beliefs and practices of caring have on individual and community health. Dr Koenig has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion, with close to 350 scientific peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and nearly 40 books in print or in preparation. His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on over 50 national and international TV news programs, over 100 national or international radio programs, and hundreds of national and international newspapers or magazines.

Greg Clarke from the Centre For Public Christianity recently interviewed Dr Koenig about the effects of religious belief on physical and mental health.

Roger’s comments:

Dr Koenig has some interesting and evidence-based comments about the beneficial effects of religious faith and involvement in religious/believing communities on the health, well-being and longevity of the individual. He has a sensible and rational approach to these questions.

He rightly critiques the mislead and, quite frankly, silly attempts to quantify the effect of intercessory prayer on illness. I agree with Dr Koenig that the whole premise of attempting to scientifically quantify the healing effects of intercessory prayer is misguided and guilty of category error. Scientific experimentation is designed to measure predictable natural phenomena that obey the laws of nature and the laws of the cosmos. God is spirit and He is supernatural. He is also a person who is free to choose whether he acts or does not act in any given situation. God is no more bound to answer prayer in a double-blinded, randomised, controlled trial than I am to answer my telephone every time is rings. Attempting to quantify the healing affects of intercessory prayer in this way is silly and completely misrepresents and misunderstands the sovereign free will of God.

Dr Koenig does, however, have some interesting points to make about the effects of religion and faith in God on individual health, well-being and longevity. Of course, skeptics and naturalists will debate the mechanism of action of religious belief in these situations, but the beneficial effects demonstrated in this research is certainly food for thought.