Prescribing Faith: Medicine, Media, and Religion in American Culture

Publisher Description

The healing powers of medicine and prayer are often media headlines. Not explored is how media itself have shaped popular ideas about religion and health. Prescribing Faith traces the confluence of medicine, media, and religion from mid-nineteenth-century American culture to the present day. Badaracco examines how media portray the relationship between religious faith and medicine, showing that the relationship is one fraught with conflict of interest, controversy, and paradox. Prescribing Faith offers valuable insight into deconstructing religion and medicine as shaped by today's media.