Conference to explore religion and medical practices

CONTACT: Ellen
Chang
PHONE: (713) 348-6777
EMAIL: ellenc@rice.edu

CONFERENCE
TO EXPLORE RELIGION AND MEDICAL PRACTICES
Focus On How Religious Beliefs
Affects Views Of Health, Healing

The “Psyche, Soma and
Spirit Religion and Healing in Cultural Context” conference at Rice University
will explore the complex relationships connecting illness, psychology,
spirituality and healing on March 30-31.

The conference will take
place at Rice and the University of Texas School of Medicine. It will focus on
the relationship between healing and religion and how different cultural and
medical systems understand the body and define healing. Speakers will discuss
the different views of the psyche, body and spirit of Jewish, Christian,
African, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. For instance, in Tibetan medicine the
body is seen as a complex system of inner currents and elemental forces whose
imbalance leads to disease.

“Listeners will come
away from the conference with an enriched understanding of the vital roles that
religion, culture, class and race play in forming our understanding of body and
mind, the ways they can be healed, and the motivation for doing so,” said Anne
Klein, Rice professor of religious studies.

The conference will also
explore how people of various classes and races are treated differently and
experience different health issues. For example, middle class people in the
United States and Europe are concerned with developing technology while those in
the developing countries and among the working poor are concerned about access
to medicine, said Klein.

“Our aim is to have each
participant take some of these concepts and consider them cross culturally or in
a critical way so that we may take a fresh look at the presuppositions of our
cultures and those of others,” she said.

This conference is
financed by a grant from the Ford Foundation and sponsored by the Rice
University Religious Studies Department.

For more information
about the free conference, see http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~religion/people_events/psyche.html.

Following is the
schedule for the conference:

Friday, March 30, 2001
University of Texas School of
Medicine, Room 2.103
Welcome: Anne C. Klein – Religious
Studies, Rice University

“Spirituality and
Clinical Medicine East and West”
11:30 a.m. – noon
Tibetan Mind/Body
Practices and their Medical Relevance
M. Alejandro Chaoul – Religious
Studies, Rice University
Lorenzo Cohen, M. D. – Behavioral Sciences, MD
Anderson Cancer Center

noon – 1
p.m.
Doctors, Patients and their Spiritualities: Current Opportunities and
Obstacles
Rabbi Samuel Karff, D.H.L. – Adjunct Professor of Society
& Health, UT-Houston Health Science Center
James Lomax, M.D. – Professor
of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine
Moderator: Dr. Gerald McKenny –
Religious Studies, Rice University

Rice University, Fondren
Library, Kyle Morrow Room
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Suffering and Asceticism
in Jewish and Christian Traditions
Dr. Baruch Brody – Philosophy, Rice
University
Dr. H. Tristram Englehardt – Philosophy, Rice University
Dr.
Andy Lustig – Religious Studies, Rice University
Moderator: Dr. Gerald
McKenny – Religious Studies, Rice University

4 – 6:30 p.m.
Health
and Healing: Buddhist and African Perspectives
Dr. Lobsang Rapgay –
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Harvey Aronson – Dawn Mountain
Research Institute; Private Practice, Houston
Dr. Elias Bongmba – Religious
Studies, Rice University
Moderator: Dr. Anne C. Klein – Religious Studies,
Rice University

Saturday
March 31, 2001
Rice
University, Humanities Building, Room 117
9:00 – 11:30 a.m.
The Body in
Context: Social Formation, Civic Spaces and Community
Dr. Vincent L.
Wimbush – Union Theological Seminary
Dr. Karen McCarthy Brown – Drew
University
Dr. Kathryn Milun – Arizona State University
Moderator: Dr.
Mary Ann Clark – Rice University

1 – 4
p.m.
Psychology and Indian Culture: Hindu and Buddhist Views of Self and
Existence
Dr. Gananath Obeyesekere – Princeton University
Dr.
Richard A. Shweder – University of Chicago
Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal –
Westminster College
Dr. Allan Roland – Private Practice, New York City

Moderator: Dr. William Parsons – Religious Studies, Rice University

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