Ann Miller
Health Communication and Faith Communities
Edited by: Ann Miller & Donald Rubin
2011
Hampton Press
While a large and growing body of literature addresses the intersection of health and religion/spirituality, Health Communication and Faith Communities is the first book-length treatment addressing health messaging in, by, and through religiously-identified groups. This volume provides a broad perspective on the entire domain of health communication and faith-based contexts and organizations. It draws on the expertise of researchers and practitioners from the fields of public health, pastoral care, medicine, religious and cultural studies, and health communication. Cases arise from a variety of religious traditions, ethnicities, and nationalities. Chapters in the book address three major topic areas of praxis and theory: (a) health communication through communities of faith—that is, cases in which public health entities use religiously-affiliated channels of communication to convey their messages; (b) health communication by communities of faith—that is, interpersonal or public interactions in which religiously-identified message sources articulate their stances on health protection and disease treatment; and (c) health communication in faith communities or in religiously-identified patient-provider communication.