World Religions for Healthcare Professionals

This third edition of a popular text introduces healthcare students and professionals to a wide range of health beliefs and practices in world religions. Chapters on various religions are written to offer an insider’s view on the religion’s historical development, key beliefs and practices, including ideas of health, sickness, death, and dying. The chapters include case studies, advice on what to do and what to avoid when caring for patients.

Introductory chapters invite the reader to consider the broad context of patient care in pluralistic society and explore one’s personal orientation to others from different religions. How we care for patients from different backgrounds and cultures insists on professional boundaries that the reader may have not yet examined. A new chapter explores the relationship between religion and public health in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the reader to consider what morally appropriate balance is required if and when personal faith conflict with public health needs.

Undoubtedly, the sensitivity with which clinicians communicate with patients and make decisions regarding appropriate medical intervention can be greatly increased by an understanding of religious and cultural diversity.

This is a core textbook for students studying healthcare, religion and culture, and an invaluable reference for healthcare professionals.

Mark F. Carr, PhD, served as professor of ethics in the School of Religion at Loma Linda University and the theological co- director of the Center for Christian Bioethics at the same institution. He received his doctoral degree in religious ethics at the University of Virginia and wrote Passionate Deliberation: Emotion, Temperance, and the Care Ethic in Clinical Moral Deliberation (2001). After a brief time as chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at Kettering College in Ohio, he now works in Anchorage, Alaska, where he serves as the senior director of ethics for Providence Health Alaska.

Siroj Sorajjakool, PhD, received his degree from Claremont School of Theology in the field of personality and theology. For two decades he served as professor of religion, psychology, and counseling for the school of religion and, subsequently, professor in the department of counseling and family sciences for the school of behavioral health, Loma Linda University. He earned his second PhD in policy, management and educational leadership from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. After returning to Thailand, he served as president for Asia-Pacific International University. He is currently professor of religion and theology at Asia-Pacific International University. His research interest focuses on exploring the issue of mental health within the Asian context and among ethnic minorities in Northern Thailand.

Ernest J. Bursey, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Religion in the department of Health and Biomedical Sciences at AdventHealth University in Orlando, Florida. He received his doctoral degree from Yale University in the field of New Testament studies with a dissertation, Exorcism in the Gospel of Matthew (1991). He has had a long career at Walla Walla University where he served as dean of the School of Theology, and more recently at AdventHealth University where he continues to teach undergraduate and graduate students in whole person care and world religions for healthcare professionals. He recently completed a commentary on the Book of Romans.