Prayers for Sickness: What do people pray for and how do they deal with unanswered prayer?

Background: This paper focuses upon prayer for sickness. What do individuals suffering from illness, their families and the wider community pray for? How do they deal with unanswered prayer? Do they pray for cure, to guide medical professionals or to cope with their sickness? What rationalisations do they proffer for unanswered prayer?

Methods: Based on a critical literature review and deploying secondary data from the Twenty First Century Evangelical research programme, the data suggest that prayers for guiding medical professionals and coping are more common than for cure, at least in Global North countries such as the UK and US. But why do those who believe in miracles not ask God for divine healing? Furthermore, unanswered prayer can conflict with Christian views of God as omnipotent and all loving.

Religion, spirituality, and epilepsy.

This review provides responses to four questions on epilepsy, religion, and spirituality. Firstly, have early religious beliefs and writings stigmatized and discriminated against epilepsy and if so, what has been done to correct this? We provide textual evidence suggesting an affirmative response. Secondly, which religious luminaries, gods, saints, and religious symbols have connections with epilepsy? We argue that the evidence to suggest that St Paul, Joan of Arc, the Prophet Mohammed, and others had epilepsy is weak and emphasizes the limitations of imposing contemporary neurological frameworks upon them.

Clinical ethnography in severe mental illness: a clinical method to tackle social determinants and structural racism in personalised care.

Ethnic inequalities in the experiences and outcomes of severe mental illness are well established. These include a higher incidence of severe mental illnesses (psychoses), adverse pathways into and through care, including crisis care, police and criminal justice systems involvement, and care under the powers of the Mental Health Act. The situation persists despite awareness and is driven by a mixture of the social determinants of poor health, societal disadvantage and structural racism, as well as conflictual interactions with care systems, which themselves are configured in ways that sustain or deepen these inequalities.

Cryonics: Science or Religion.

Cryonics involves the low-temperature freezing of human corpses in the hope that they will one day be reanimated. Its advocates see it as a medical treatment but as in any medical procedure, this presupposes some scientific evidence. This paper examines the scientific basis of this technology and argues that cryonics is based upon assertions which have never been (and potentially can never be empirically demonstrated) scientifically.

Covid-19 and the Apocalypse: Religious and Secular Perspectives.

The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to existential crises. One way of finding meaning in this is through apocalyptic narratives. We differentiate between religious (based upon eschatology) and secular apocalypticism (based upon radical political and economic change) and argue that both are to be found in the wake of Covid-19 infection.

Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals.

Religious rituals are universal human practices that play a seminal role in community bonding. In two experiments, we tested the role of mu-opioids as the active factor fostering social bonding. We used a mu-opioid blocker (naltrexone) in two double-blind studies of rituals from different religious traditions.

Does culture impact on notions of criminal responsibility and action? The case of spirit possession.

Multicultural societies such as the United Kingdom are host to people with diverse belief systems and behavioral norms. Whilst a country requires that all members of society conform to standardized legal requirements, cases arise that involve certain complexities related to the cultural or religious context in which a certain action was committed. This paper addresses the impact of culture on notions of criminal responsibility and action.

Carers and families: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study 3.

This paper looks at the role of Bangladeshi families in the provision of care and help seeking: the burden on family members but also their presumed role in the causation of illness. It deploys data deriving from an interview study examining understandings and health-related practices among British Bangladeshis with mental and physical illness and their carers. While families generally support the mentally ill, the emotional and physical burden on them can be extensive.

God put a thought into my mind: the charismatic Christian experience of receiving communications from God.

The agentive aspects of communicative religious experiences remain somewhat neglected in the social sciences literature. There is a need for phenomenological descriptions of these experiences and the ways in which they differ from culturally defined psychopathological states. In this semi-structured interview study, eight congregants attending an evangelical church in London were asked to describe their experiences of God communicating with them.

Prevalence of psychosis in black ethnic minorities in Britain: analysis based on three national surveys.

Purpose: A considerable excess of psychosis in black ethnic minorities is apparent from clinical studies, in Britain, as in other developed economies with white majority populations. This excess is not so marked in population surveys. Equitable health service provision should be informed by the best estimates of the excess.

'Islamic fatalism': life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London--an interview study 2.

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London.

At the crossroads of anthropology and epidemiology: current research in cultural psychiatry in the UK.

Cultural psychiatry research in the UK comprises a broad range of diverse methodologies, academic disciplines, and subject areas. Methodologies range from epidemiological to anthropological/ethnographic to health services research; mixed methods research is becoming increasingly popular, as are public health and health promotional topics. After briefly outlining the history of cultural psychiatry in the UK we will discuss contemporary research.

The work of a woman is to give birth to children: cultural constructions of infertility in Nigeria.

Infertility is a condition loaded with meaning spanning across biomedical, psychological, social, economic, cultural and religious spheres. Given its disruptive power over women's lives, it provides a unique lens through which issues of kinship, gender, sexuality, cosmology and religion can be examined. The paper presents the results of an ethnographic study of infertility in Central Nigeria.

Religious doubts: implications for psychopathology and psychotherapy.

This article examines the psychopathological implications of religious doubts. Following a discussion of their prevalence, their role in development and causal factors, and their impact upon religious belief, the author discusses the relationship between religious doubts and anxiety and depression. Religious doubts may enter the psychotherapeutic process, and the author discusses one form of religious cognitive-behavioral therapy using the Bible that might be useful for Christian patients with such doubts.

The doctor's medicine and the ambiguity of amulets: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London--an interview study--1.

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more distant biomedical framework fits with the newer modernising 'High' Islam (literate, scripturalist, puritanical, unitarian, urban, clerical, perhaps masculinist), as opposed to Hindu-inflected traditional Sufi Islam in Bangladesh (peasant, popular, syncretic, saintly, magical, ecstatic and possibly more sympathetic to women's experience).

The mental health benefits and costs of Sabbath observance among Orthodox Jews.

This study aimed to examine the perceived psychological costs and benefits of Sabbath (Shabbos) observance among 13 practising Jews, 9 UK residents and 4 US residents. Emerging themes were as follows: Shabbos as a special day, giving time to contemplate on profound issues, withdrawal and rest from mundane concerns, and deepening relationships. These aspects can potentially improve feelings of mental well-being, and were indeed often said to do so.

Theodicy and end-of-life care.

This article examines theodicy-the vindication of God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We focus on the thought processes that chaplains, social workers, and other professionals may use in their care interventions to address issues of theodicy for patients. Theodical issues may cause anxiety and distress for believers, but they can also potentially be a source of relief and release.

Did Christianity lead to schizophrenia? Psychosis, psychology and self reference.

Both geographically and historically, schizophrenia may have emerged from a psychosis that was more florid, affective, labile, shorter lived and with a better prognosis. It is conjectured that this has occurred with a reflexive self-consciousness in Western and globalising societies, a development whose roots lie in Christianity. Every theology also presents a psychology.

The Origins of Jewish Guilt: Psychological, Theological, and Cultural Perspectives.

The idea that guilt and Judaism are closely interlinked has a long historical legacy. After discussing recent work on anthropology and emotion focusing on shame and guilt, we examine three theories purporting to account for this link: psychoanalytic, theological, and guilt as a cultural stereotype particularly the notion of the Jewish mother.

Religion, spirituality, and mental health: current controversies and future directions.

Although studies examining religion, spirituality, and mental health generally indicate positive associations, there is a need for more sophisticated methodology, greater discrimination between different cultures and traditions, more focus on situated experiences of individuals belonging to particular traditions, and, in particular, greater integration of theological contributions to this area. We suggest priorities for future research based on these considerations.

The relationship between happiness and intelligent quotient: the contribution of socio-economic and clinical factors.

Background: Happiness and higher intelligent quotient (IQ) are independently related to positive health outcomes. However, there are inconsistent reports about the relationship between IQ and happiness. The aim was to examine the association between IQ and happiness and whether it is mediated by social and clinical factors.

On not praying for the return of an amputated limb: conserving a relationship with God as the primary function of prayer.

Prayer is commonplace at times of illness. But what do people pray for? After reviewing recent work in the cognitive science of religion, the authors argue that pray-ers preferentially ask for psychological as opposed to physical outcomes because these are easier to accommodate God's intervention in the healing process. The authors exemplify this argument with recent studies of illness-related prayer.