Protestant Christianity and Mental Health: Beliefs, Research and Applications - Paperback

by Harold G. Koenig M. D. (Author)

This book is for mental health professionals, clergy, researchers, and laypersons interested in the relationship between religion, spirituality and mental health in Protestant Christians. A concise description of Protestant beliefs, practices, and values is followed by a review of research conducted in Protestant-majority Christian populations, and then by recommendations for practice based on research, clinical experience, and common sense. The author is a physician researcher who has spent over 30 years investigating the relationship between religion and health, and directs Duke University's Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. He is also a clinician who for decades has treated clients with a wide range of emotional disorders using a faith-based approach. In this well-documented and highly cited volume, he brings together over 100 years of research that has examined how religious faith impacts the mental health of those who call themselves Christians, and explains what this means for those who are seeking to provide hope, meaning, and healing to members of this faith tradition.

Author Biography

Harold G. Koenig, M.D., M.H.Sc., completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, nursing school at San Joaquin Delta College, medical school training at the University of California at San Francisco, and geriatric medicine, psychiatry, and biostatistics training at Duke University Medical Center. He is currently board certified in general psychiatry, and formerly boarded in family medicine, geriatric medicine, and geriatric psychiatry, and is on the faculty at Duke as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Associate Professor of Medicine. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and in the School of Public Health at Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People's Republic of China. Dr. Koenig is Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center, and has published extensively in the fields of mental health, geriatrics, and religion, with over 500 scientific peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and nearly 50 books in print or preparation. His research on religion, health and ethical issues in medicine has been featured on dozens of national and international TV news programs (including ABC's World News Tonight, The Today Show, Good Morning America. Dr. Oz Show, and NBC Nightly News), over a hundred national or international radio programs, and hundreds of newspapers and magazines (including Reader's Digest, Parade Magazine, Newsweek, Time, and Guidepost). Dr. Koenig has given testimony before the U.S. Senate (1998) and U.S. House of Representatives (2008) concerning the benefits of religion and spirituality on public health, and travels widely to give seminars and workshops on this topic. He is the recipient of the 2012 Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association and the 2013 Gary Collins Award from the American Association of Christian Counselors.