Healing Community: Pagan Cultural Models and Experiences in Seeking Well-Being
Issue: Vol 16 No. 1 (2014)
Journal: Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
Abstract:
The Pagan Health Survey Project originated in 2010 in response to an American Public Health Association call for papers on minority religions and health. 1,598 respondents from all regions of the United States provided insight into the ways Pagans think about health and healing, their care-seeking patterns, and their experiences as they navigate the biomedical health care system. This treatment of the data weaves a practice-oriented story of one important aspect of Pagan culture – healing – describing the commonalities found throughout Pagan traditions as they are instantiated in individual journeys toward well-being and wholeness. The author critically examines the biomedical health care model from the perspective of the survey respondents, and then turns the same lens on Paganism itself, providing suggestions for new ways to address prejudice and to organize to meet people’s health needs.
Author: Kimberly D. Kirner
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