Though the current political climate might lead one to suspect that religion and medicine make for uncomfortable bedfellows, the two institutions have a long history of alliance. From religious healers and religious hospitals to religiously informed bioethics and research studies on the impact of religious and spiritual beliefs on physical and mental well-being, religion and medicine have encountered one another from antiquity through the present day. In Religion and Medicine, Dr. Jeff Levin outlines this longstanding history and the multifaceted interconnections between these two institutions. The first book to cover the full breadth of this subject, it documents religion-medicine alliances across religious traditions, throughout the world, and over the course of history. Levin summarizes a wide range of material in the most comprehensive introduction to this emerging field of scholarship to date. Dr. Jeff Levin's Religion and Medicine is perhaps the most profound and balanced overview of the connections between religious faith and human health that has appeared in my lifetime. This is a work of impressive, expansive scholarship. No one is more capable of this discussion than Levin, the pioneer who introduced the term 'the epidemiology of religion' decades ago, and who has devoted his career to research and analysis of this field. This book transcends both sides by engaging actual evidence.It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Levin's approach, because our future may depend on our conclusions about how religion affects health in the broadest sense:the survival of our species.