Religion & Health : Narratives on Faith Healing

The book involves developing an understanding of how health and illness are identified, explained and deconstructed in their intersection with religious explanations, as experienced and understood in everyday realities of the people. It revolves around how people involve their subjective understandings about health, illness and religious perceptions, both institutional and popular, in face of disruptions owing to illness experiences or maintaining health. Based on empirical evidences this book attempts to conceptualise on a range of simultaneity of practices involved in transforming the state of bodily experiences from illness to health among the Sikhs in north India. It comprehends the continuities and breaks involved in knowing about religion, practicing and utilising religion and contestations between these processes, vis-à-vis norms of the institutionalised and realities of the everyday life of the people in relation to their health seeking behaviour. The book would be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, religious scholars and public health researchers involved in understanding of relations between religious beliefs and practices and health.