Spiritual Healing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives

There has recently been much interest in the relationship between science and religion, and how they combine to give us a 'binocular' perspective on things. One important phenomenon which has been neglected in recent work is the concept of spiritual healing. This edited collection explores a variety of approaches to spiritual healing from different religious points of view, identifying both what it is and how it works. The authors also explore the biological and psychological processes, open to scientific enquiry, through which healing may be mediated. As such, this book indicates the central proposition that religious and scientific perspectives answer different questions about healing, and there is not necessarily any conflict between them.

Fraser Watts is a reader in theology and science at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He is the editor of Creation, Law and Probability (2008), Jesus and Psychology (2007) and The Dialogue between Science and Religion (2006), and the author of Theology and Psychology (2002). He is also an ordained minister in the Church of England, and Vicar-Chaplain of St Edward's Church in Cambridge.