Prescribing Faith: Medicine, Media, and Religion in American Culture - Softcover

This book is a landmark account of the construction and commodification of medicine and health. --Stewart M. Hoover, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Colorado Badaracco provides an indispensable resource on the changing contents and contexts of medicine in America... This volume is a bravura treatment of vitally important issues... Essential. All levels. -- CHOICE

The healing powers of medicine and prayer are often media headlines. Not explored is how media itself has shaped popular ideas about religion and health. Prescribing Faith traces the confluence of medicine, media and religion from mid-nineteenth century American culture to the present day. Badaracco examines how media portrays the relationship between religious faith and medicine, showing that the relationship is one fraught with conflict of interest, controversy, and paradox. Prescribing Faith offers valuable insight into deconstructing religion and medicine as shaped by today's media.