This open access book provides methodological devices and analytical frameworks for the study of societies in transformation. It explores a central paradox in the study of change: making sense of change requires long-term perspectives on societal transformations and on the different ways people experience social change, whereas the research carried out to study change is necessarily limited to a relatively short space of time. This volume offers a range of methodological responses to this challenge by paying attention to the complex entanglement of qualitative research and the metanarratives generally used to account for change. Each chapter is based on a concrete case study from different parts of the world and tackles a diversity of topics, analytical approaches, and data collection methods. The contributors' innovative solutions provide valuable tools and techniques for all those interested in the study of change.

The relationships between religion, spirituality, health, biomedical institutions, complementary, and alternative healing systems are widely discussed today. While many of these debates revolve around the biomedical legitimacy of religious modes of healing, the market for them continues to grow. The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty-five chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five parts: Healing practices with religious roots and frames Religious actors in and around the medical field Organizing infrastructures of religion and medicine: pluralism and competition Boundary-making between religion and medicine Religion and epidemics Within these sections, central issues, debates and problems are examined, including health and healing, religiosity, spirituality, biomedicine, medicalization, complementary medicine, medical therapy, efficacy, agency, and the nexus of body, mind, and spirit. The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as sociology, anthropology, and medicine.

Moderne Schlagworte wie "Globalisierung", "Kampf der Kulturen" oder "religioeser Pluralismus" sind eng verknupft mit der Geschichte der interkulturellen und interreligioesen Begegnungen der letzten Jahrhunderte. Die Studie zeigt mit der Darstellung von Vorgeschichte und Verlauf der ersten interreligioesen Tagung auf internationaler Ebene, dem World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago 1893, wie wechselseitige Wahrnehmung von Religionen und Kulturen zu gegenseitigen Anregungen fuhrten. In Chicago traten Anhanger verschiedester westlicher und asiatischer Traditionen auf, die selbstbewusst ihre Ansichten vorstellten und sich um das Gesprach bemuhten. Die Analyse ihrer Reden macht fur das 19. Jahrhundert typische Strukturen interreligioeser Wahrnehmung bzw. Begegnung sichtbar. Als "Antworten der Moderne" sind sie auch heute noch im Dialog der Religionen zu finden und ermoeglichen auf dem historischen Hintergrund ein Verstandnis der Prozesse der gegenseitigen Auseinandersetzung. Ein Anhang bietet Kurzinformationen zu den Teilnehmern des Parlamentes.

In modern societies the functional differentiation of medicine and religion is the predominant paradigm. Contemporary therapeutic practices and concepts in healing systems, such as Transpersonal Psychology, Ayurveda, as well as Buddhist and Anthroposophic medicine, however, are shaped by medical as well as religious or spiritual elements. This book investigates configurations of the entanglement between medicine, religion, and spirituality in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. How do political and legal conditions affect these healing systems? How do they relate to religious and scientific discourses? How do therapeutic practitioners position themselves between medicine and religion, and what is their appeal for patients?