The Institute Co-Sponsors the 12th Annual Conference on Medicine and Religion, The Evans Center for Spiritual and Religious Values in Healthcare at Indiana University Health

NEWS RELEASE

HOUSTON, Texas (March 11, 2024) – The Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center (The Institute) is co-sponsoring the 12th Annual Conference on Medicine and Religion. Hosted by the Evans Center for Spiritual and Religious Values in Healthcare at Indiana University Health, this conference will be held April 14 through April 16 at the Marriott Indianapolis Downtown located at 350 West Maryland Street in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Institute is co-sponsoring this prestigious continuing education conference, this year themed “In Pursuit of the Great Coherence: Healing in the Spaces Between,” with Harvard University, Duke University, University of Notre Dame, and several leading academic institutions.

The Institute invites physicians, clinicians, academicians, clergy, students, and others to engage in conversations about medicine and religion. This annual conference enables health professionals and scholars to gain a deeper and more practical understanding of how religion relates to the practice of medicine, with particular attention to the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This forum is produced to build bridges between theory and practice, science and theology, academic and lay communities, various healthcare professions, and religious traditions.

Institute leaders Stuart Nelson, president and chief executive officer, and Jeff Sokoloff, MA, vice president of operations and conference producer, will attend the conference.

“The Conference on Medicine and Religion provides a forum for dialogue across so many different domains – medicine, religion, science, mental health, chaplaincy, palliative medicine, and other areas,” commented Sokoloff. “Organizing this important conference with such prestigious organizations and scholars from academia and healthcare is truly an honor for all of us associated with the Institute for Spirituality and Health.”

The Conference on Medicine and Religion has been well-received and has historically attracted attendees from overseas, including Japan, Israel, and several European countries. Here are some comments from past attendee who found the conference valuable to them and their work:

“This is a wonderful conference, and it is crucial for my academic work,” commented 2023 conference attendee Benjamin Doolittle, MD, MDiv, from Yale University School of Medicine and Divinity School.

“I appreciate the true diversity of views which came together here. This is a rare space in which voices from multiple faiths and ‘left’ and ‘right’ political and philosophical backgrounds come together – and it’s because all are interested, in the end, in healing and relieving human suffering,” said 2023 conference attendee Jonathan Weinkle, MD, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP), and Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Each year, this conference is organized by a host planning committee of scholars and clinicians who work at the intersection of medicine and religion. The conference will feature keynote speakers, peer-reviewed papers, workshops and poster sessions, and a panel discussion featuring industry leaders.

For this conference, the Institute partners with a consortium of leading academic institutions whose missions include a commitment to faithful practices of medicine and/or to scholarly discourse regarding the intersections of medicine and religion. These co-sponsors include the following:

  • Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University

  • Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality, Harvard University

  • Institute for Faith and Learning, Baylor University

  • Loma Linda University

  • de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame

  • Ohio State University Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities

  • The Evans Center for Spiritual and Religious Values in Healthcare at Indiana University Health

  • The Hundere Endowment in Religion and Culture, Oregon State University

  • Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke University

  • Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine, and Initiative on Theology, Medicine, and Culture

  • Duke University

  • University of Chicago

This year the conference is also supported by gifts from the John Templeton Foundation and the Vineyard Life Church in Indianapolis.

For more information and to register, please visit https://www.medicineandreligion.com/.

Joanna Martin