“Spirituality, Religion, and Pediatrics: Intersecting Worlds of Healing”
Barnes, Linda L., Gregory A. Plotnikoff, Kenneth Fox, and Sara Pendleton. “Spirituality, Religion, and Pediatrics: Intersecting Worlds of Healing.” Pediatrics 104, no. 6 (2000): 899–911.
Barnes, Plotnikoff, Fox, and Pendleton address the relationship between the practice of biomedicine and the beliefs and practices of religion related to children. Christian Scientists are specifically mentioned only in the context of describing the tension between clinicians and faith healers in general. But the article is relevant for scholars seeking an understanding of Christian Science, because of its acknowledgment of both the benefits and challenges to society and to families that practice spiritual healing. The article reviews contemporary theories of child faith development and models of child spirituality. Since Newton’s 17th-century promotion of the idea of a material world controlled by fixed physical laws, the tension between physically-oriented and spiritually-oriented worldviews has persisted. But at the beginning of the 21st century, new efforts were made to discover a synthesis between medicine, religion, and spirituality. “Pediatric practice may need to recognize that religion and spirituality are not confined to issues pertaining to death, but rather may play an important role in determining the way(s) families live, and therefore, have a broader impact on child health” (899b). Biomedicine is a cultural system of its own, and it works better when it recognizes the value and importance of other cultural systems with which it interacts.
ISSN: 1098-4275
Print ISSN: 0031-4005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.106.S3.899
See also annotations:
“Healing and Conscience in Christian Science” by Thomas C Johnsen
“Christian Science: A Comment” by Thomas C. Johnsen
“The Law and Christian Science Healing for Children: A Pathfinder” by Elena M. Kondos