Skip to main content
Log in

Neither a sinner nor a saint: Health as a present-day religion in the age of healthism

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Social Theory & Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In Western societies, religious imagery is often used in conjunction with the topic ‘health’ in this biomedicalized, healthistic time, but is that enough to qualify the structural characteristics of the presentations and practices of health as a present-day health religion? And what may be gained by adopting such a perspective? This article explores these questions by a hermeneutical rereading, using a comprehensive list of 10 religious features derived from the sociology of religion on texts describing (a) religiously charged health phenomena, (b) the interconnection between health and society and (c) health theories. The results show that health can rightfully be called a religion, with characteristics resembling Weber’s protestant work ethic, which may accelerate the formation of a new economic and health-related underclass. Viewing health from a religious angle has the potential of introducing new concepts and ideas of religious origin into the sphere of health. We believe that this introduction will facilitate and inspire new ways of thinking about health which add a ‘religious edge’ to the seeming rationality of health, that is, an emotionalized commitment to health as a dignified authority, which an understanding of health as a moral obligation hardly captures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addelson, K.P. (2003) The man of professional wisdom. In: S. Harding and M.B. Hintikka (eds.) Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic, pp. 165–186.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, D. (1995) The rise of surveillance medicine. Sociology of Health & Illness 17 (3): 393–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aronowitz, R.A. (2009) The converged experience of risk and disease. The Milbank Quarterly 87 (2): 417–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002) Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumhagen, D.W. (1979) The doctor’s white coat. Annals of Internal Medicine 91 (1): 111–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Callon, M. and Rabeharisoa, V. (2008) The growing engagement of emergent concerned groups in political and economic life: Lessons from the French association of neuromuscular disease patients. Science Technology Human Values 33 (2): 230–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, A.E., Shim, J.K., Mamo, L., Fosket, J.R. and Fishman, J.R. (2003) Biomedicalization: Technoscientific transformations of health, illness, and U.S. biomedicine. American Sociological Review 68 (2): 161–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, R. (2006) Health as a meaningful social practice. Health 10 (4): 401–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dew, K. (2007) Public health and the cult of humanity: A neglected durkheimian concept. Sociology of Health & Illness 29 (1): 100–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dörner, K. (2003) Die Gesundheitsfalle. Woran unsere Medizin krankt. Zwölf Thesen zu ihrer Heilung. München, Germany: Econ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (1965) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenreich, B. (2009) Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World. London: Granta.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliade, M. (1959) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, M.T. (2003) The sacred: Differentiating, clarifying and extending concepts. Review of Religious Research 45 (1): 32–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenn, R.K. (2009) Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franke, A. (2006) Modelle von Gesundheit und Krankheit. Bern, Switzerland: Hans Huber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furseth, I. (2006) An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, D.S. (2007) Religion, the culture of biomedicine, and the tremendum: Towards a non-essentialist analysis of interconnection. Journal of Religion and Health 46 (1): 99–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenhalgh, T. and Wessely, S. (2004) ‘Health for me’: A sociocultural analysis of healthism in the middle-class. British Medical Bulletin 69 (1): 197–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hick, J. (2004) An Interpretation of Religion. New Haven, CT: Yale University.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hurd Clarke, L. and Bennet, E.V. (2012) Constructing the moral body: Self-care among older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Health 17 (3): 211–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurrelmann, K. (2000) Gesundheitssoziologie. Eine Einführung in sozialwissenschaftliche Theorien von Krankheitsprävention und Gesundheitsförderung. Weinheim, Germany: Juventa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Illich, I. (1974) Medical Nemesis. London: Calder & Boyans.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenen, R., Arden-Jones, A. and Eeles, R. (2003) Living with chronic risk: Healthy women with a history of breast/ovarian cancer. Health Risk & Society 5 (3): 315–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kettner, M. (2006) ’Wunscherfüllende Medizin’ – Assistenz zum besseren Leben? GGW 2 (6): 7–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kickbusch, I. (2008) Health governance: The health society. In: D.V. McQueen and I. Kickbusch (eds.) Health and Modernity. The Role of Theory in Health Promotion. New York: Springer, pp. 144–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A. (1988) The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing and the Human Condition. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komduur, R.H., Korthals, M. and Te Molder, H. (2009) The good life: Living for health and a life without risks? On a prominent script of nutrigenomics. British Journal of Nutrition 101 (3): 307–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Breton, D. (2004) Genetic fundamentalism or the cult of the gene. Body & Society 10 (4): 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (1995) The Imperative of Health: Public Health and the Regulated Body. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maslow, A. (1970) Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melchart, D., Weidenhammer, W., Linde, K. and Saller, R. (2003) ‘Quality profiling’ for complementary medicine: The example of a hospital for traditional chinese medicine. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 9 (2): 193–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, P.A. (2007) Embodiment, emotion and religious experience: Religion, culture and the charismatic body. In: J.A. Beckford and N.J. Demerath (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. London: SAGE, pp. 587–607.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Metzl, J.M. (2010) Introduction: Why against health? In: J.M. Metzl and A. Kirkland (eds.) Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality. New York: New York University, pp. 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mordacci, R. (1998) The desire for health and the promise of medicine. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 1 (1): 21–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nettleton, S. (2006) The Sociology of Health and Illness. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuberger, J. (1999) The NHS as a theological institution. The ideal remains strong, but the practice too has to measure up. British Medical Journal 319 (7225): 1588–1589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordenfelt, L. (1991) Towards a Theory of Health Promotion: A Logical Analysis. Linköping, Sweden: CMT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okubo, K., Saito, K., Fukuda, H., Watanabe, K., Ogawa, K. and Shiotani, A. (2010) Traditional chinese medicine for treatment of laryngeal papillomatosis. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16 (4): 427–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osler, W. (1985) Man’s redemption of man. In: J.P. McGovern and C.G. Roland (eds.) The Collected Essays of Sir William Osler. Vol. I, Birmingham, UK: Classics of Medicine Library, pp. 371–431.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oscarsson, M. (2007) Healthy women or risk patients? Non-Attendance in a Cervical Cancer Screening Program. Dissertation, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.

  • Philipson, S. and Uddenberg, N. (1989) Hälsa Som Livsmening. Stockholm, Sweden: Natur och Kultur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarsell, R. (1989) Människan och hennes hälsa: Om hälsobegreppets och hälsoupplysningens idéhistoria. In: S. Philipson and N. Uddenberg (eds.) Hälsa som livsmening. Stockholm, Sweden: Natur och Kultur, pp. 94–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. (1997) Essays on the Anthropology of Reason. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sandell, K. (2010) Vad är patologiskt och vad är normalt i medicinen? In: B. Wijma, G. Smirthwaite and K. Swahnberg (eds.) Genus och kön inom medicin- och vårdutbildningar. Lund, Sweden: Studentlitteratur, pp. 103–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, B. (2010) Neo-Gesundheitsförderung: Wer kann, muss ran. Auf der Suche nach dem feinsten gemeinsamen Nenner wirksamer Gesundheitsförderung. GGW 10 (2): 15–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seedhouse, D. (2001) Health: The Foundations for Achievement. Chichester, UK: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sennett, R. (1998) The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skrabanek, P. (1994) The Death of Humane Medicine and the Rise of Coercive Healthism. London: Social Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svenaeus, F. (2000) The Hermeneutics of Medicine and the Phenomenology of Health: Steps Towards a Philosophy of Medical Practice. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Svendsen, M.N. (2006) The social life of genetic knowledge: A case-study of choices and dilemmas in cancer genetic counselling in Denmark. Medical Anthropology 25 (2): 139–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The, A.M., Hak, T., Koëter, G. and Van der Wal, G. (2000) Collusion in doctor-patient communication about imminent death: An ethnographic study. British Medical Journal 321 (2): 1376–1381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (2005) ‘Sacraments’ in the hospital: Exploring the magic and religion of recovery. Anthropology & Medicine 12 (2): 135–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderpool, H.Y. (2007) The religious features of scientific medicine. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18 (3): 203–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wardlaw, M.P. (2011) American medicine as religious practice: Care of the sick as a sacred obligation and the unholy descent into secularization. Journal of Religion and Health 50 (1): 62–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1992) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wehling, P. and Viehöver, W. (eds.) (2011) Entgrenzung der Medizin: Transformationen des medizinischen Feldes aus soziologischer Perspektive. In: Entgrenzung der Medizin. Von der Heilkunst zur Verbesserung des Menschen? Bielefeld, Germany: transcript, pp. 7–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organisation (WHO). (1946) Preamble to the constitution of the world health organisation as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19–22 June.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Britta Pelters.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pelters, B., Wijma, B. Neither a sinner nor a saint: Health as a present-day religion in the age of healthism. Soc Theory Health 14, 129–148 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2015.21

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2015.21

Keywords

Navigation