Of the various areas in which religion and politics intersect, the domains of medicine, law, and public health display those convergences with particular intensity. The long-running debates over Obamacare are rife with religious concerns, hopes, and objections, but those highly visible conflicts bespeak a much wider range of issues. What, for example, is the role of chaplaincies in the delivery of health services? How do such spiritual offices fit within ostensibly secular institutions? In what ways are religious groups able to help generate greater access to medical care for the poor and uninsured? Can Christian-based recovery programs garner state support and endorsement, and, if so, on what terms? Our distinguished group of lecturers this fall will help us engage these pressing questions, expanding the way we think about the junctures of religion, medicine, and the law.

Wendy Cadge teaches and writes about religion in the contemporary U.S., especially as related to healthcare, immigration, and sexuality. She is Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. Her lecture, “Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine,” will draw from her research and 2012 book of the same title, and analyze how religion and spirituality are present and negotiated by physicians, nurses, chaplains, and other healthcare workers in large academic hospitals. She will deliver her lecture on Thursday, October 8, 2015, at 4:30 p.m. in Umrath Lounge. Please join us for a reception immediately following the lecture.

She has written articles on intercessory prayer, physicians’ experiences of religion and spirituality, hospital chaplains, the prayers people write in hospital prayer books, the emotional work of nurses, and the religious experiences of immigrants. She is currently working on a series of new projects about religion and spirituality in secular settings. Cadge earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University.

This event is free and open to all; your RSVP is appreciated. Please contact us at
(314) 935-9345 or rap@wustl.edu for more information.