The healing powers of medicine and prayer are often media headlines. Not explored is how media itself has shaped popular ideas about religion and health. Prescribing Faith traces the confluence of medicine, media and religion from mid-nineteenth century American culture to the present day. Badaracco examines how media portrays the relationship between religious faith and medicine, showing that the relationship is one fraught with conflict of interest, controversy, and paradox. Prescribing Faith offers valuable insight into deconstructing religion and medicine as shaped by today’s media.

Acknowledgments -- Figures -- Introduction -- 1. "Man's accidents are God's purposes" : Harvard and heroic cures -- 2. Launching a scientific religion : Christian science and the book -- 3. Measuring prayer : scientific models of religion -- 4. Belief and wellness : medical pluralism and healing -- 5. The medicated public square : advertising science -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected readings -- Index.