Conference to examine relationship between religion and healing

Conference
to examine relationship between religion and healing
…………………………………………………………………

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

The conference
will take place at Rice and The University of Texas Medical
School at Houston. It will focus on the relationship between
healing and religion and how different cultural and medical
systems understand the body and define healing. Conference
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
also will 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, Klein said.

“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.

The 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 visit the Web at <www.ruf.rice.edu/~religion/people_events/psyche.html>.
To view the conference schedule visit <http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~religion/people_events/psy-program.htm>.