True to Tradition? Religious Roots of Modern Public Health and Emerging Paradigms of Practice
Dr. Susan Holman, Valparaiso University Dr. Ellen Idler, Emory University Dr. Josh Williams, University of Colorado Denver Dr. Blake Kent, Harvard University/MGH Center on Genomics Dr. Katelyn Long, Harvard University (Moderator)
Building on the conference theme, this panel will consider the religious roots of public health practice, the evolution from religious authority to secular authority in public health, and the ways in which these histories inform emerging paradigms of public health research and practice. To accomplish this, two presentations will focus on the history of public health, both ancient and modern, and three presentations will highlight current initiatives that seek to thoughtfully engage religion in modern, secular, public health research and practice.
Speaker 1 will open the session with a presentation titled, “Are late antique religious texts relevant for modern public health?”. She will begin by describing the importance of the question posed in her presentation title and will introduce the audience to some of the late antique religious texts and authors that inform the corpus of her scholarship. To help the audience become more acquainted with these ancient religious communities, she will explore aspects of public health they seemed to address in their own time. Speaker 1 will end her presentation by outlining the potentials and pitfalls of modern appropriation of these texts and suggest guiding principles for using ancient religious texts in contemporary public health research, teaching, and writing.
Following Speaker 1, Speaker 2 will present “From Sacred to Secular: Shifting Responsibilities for the Public’s Health”. Speaker 2 will focus her historic review in the nineteenth century with John Snow, the “father of epidemiology”, who partnered with his local parish priest, Henry Whitehead, to track down the source of a deadly cholera epidemic in the Soho district of London. This historic event took place in the midst of a transition from religious authority to secular civil authority over the recording of births, deaths, and the responsibility for the health of the population. Speaker 2 will close by discussing how the investigation of the cholera epidemic revealed both the advantages and disadvantages of the new civil authority in public health.
Transitioning to emerging paradigms that engage religion in current public health practice, Speaker 3 will begin with his presentation titled “Public Health and Faith Partnerships: Ongoing Work at the Intersection of Religion and Vaccination”. Speaker 3 will present his research investigating religious exemptions to school vaccination requirements, which found that religious exemption rates are at an all-time high and rising. Speaker 3 will illustrate the consequences of high exemption rates, highlighting recent U.S. outbreaks of measles, mumps, and varicella. Against this backdrop, he will describe the formation of his community-based participatory research partnership with the Colorado Council of Churches, funded by the University of Colorado. Finally, he will provide emerging insights gleaned from “listening circles” taking place across Colorado to understand and address vaccine hesitancy within religious communities.
Speaker 4 will then describe how survey questions about religious beliefs and practices are slowly being introduced to large-scale cohort studies across the United States in his talk titled, “Emerging Findings on Religious Tradition in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health”. To begin, Speaker 4 will briefly discuss the challenge of placing questions about religion and spirituality within existing research. He will then describe some of the successes he and his team have experienced in their current Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH) which includes data from the Black Women’s Health Study, Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, Mediators of Atherosclerosis among South Asians Living in America, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Strong Heart Study. Speaker 4 will end with an overview of key findings from this project, particularly the relationship between religious tradition, physical, and mental health.
Before opening the session to questions from the audience, Speaker 5/Panel moderator will briefly introduce the work of The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, highlighting recent projects that empirically explore concepts like hope and forgiveness and their relationship to population health and well-being. She will explain how such inquiry necessitates engagement with historical philosophical and religious texts, awareness of religious traditions, and genuine interdisciplinary collaboration that expands the boundaries of modern public health scholarship.
Speaker 1 will open the session with a presentation titled, “Are late antique religious texts relevant for modern public health?”. She will begin by describing the importance of the question posed in her presentation title and will introduce the audience to some of the late antique religious texts and authors that inform the corpus of her scholarship. To help the audience become more acquainted with these ancient religious communities, she will explore aspects of public health they seemed to address in their own time. Speaker 1 will end her presentation by outlining the potentials and pitfalls of modern appropriation of these texts and suggest guiding principles for using ancient religious texts in contemporary public health research, teaching, and writing.
Following Speaker 1, Speaker 2 will present “From Sacred to Secular: Shifting Responsibilities for the Public’s Health”. Speaker 2 will focus her historic review in the nineteenth century with John Snow, the “father of epidemiology”, who partnered with his local parish priest, Henry Whitehead, to track down the source of a deadly cholera epidemic in the Soho district of London. This historic event took place in the midst of a transition from religious authority to secular civil authority over the recording of births, deaths, and the responsibility for the health of the population. Speaker 2 will close by discussing how the investigation of the cholera epidemic revealed both the advantages and disadvantages of the new civil authority in public health.
Transitioning to emerging paradigms that engage religion in current public health practice, Speaker 3 will begin with his presentation titled “Public Health and Faith Partnerships: Ongoing Work at the Intersection of Religion and Vaccination”. Speaker 3 will present his research investigating religious exemptions to school vaccination requirements, which found that religious exemption rates are at an all-time high and rising. Speaker 3 will illustrate the consequences of high exemption rates, highlighting recent U.S. outbreaks of measles, mumps, and varicella. Against this backdrop, he will describe the formation of his community-based participatory research partnership with the Colorado Council of Churches, funded by the University of Colorado. Finally, he will provide emerging insights gleaned from “listening circles” taking place across Colorado to understand and address vaccine hesitancy within religious communities.
Speaker 4 will then describe how survey questions about religious beliefs and practices are slowly being introduced to large-scale cohort studies across the United States in his talk titled, “Emerging Findings on Religious Tradition in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health”. To begin, Speaker 4 will briefly discuss the challenge of placing questions about religion and spirituality within existing research. He will then describe some of the successes he and his team have experienced in their current Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH) which includes data from the Black Women’s Health Study, Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, Mediators of Atherosclerosis among South Asians Living in America, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Strong Heart Study. Speaker 4 will end with an overview of key findings from this project, particularly the relationship between religious tradition, physical, and mental health.
Before opening the session to questions from the audience, Speaker 5/Panel moderator will briefly introduce the work of The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, highlighting recent projects that empirically explore concepts like hope and forgiveness and their relationship to population health and well-being. She will explain how such inquiry necessitates engagement with historical philosophical and religious texts, awareness of religious traditions, and genuine interdisciplinary collaboration that expands the boundaries of modern public health scholarship.