Religion and Medicine Initiative

The Religion and Medicine Initiative is an interprofessional and interdisciplinary collaborative at Pitt offering resources for thinking creatively and responsively about the multiple, complex, vibrant and often challenging dynamics evolving at the intersection of health sciences and human spirituality.

Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Department of Religious Studies with support from the Center for Bioethics and Health Law (CBHL), the goal of the Religion and Medicine Initiative is to foster conversation and scholarship related to human health and flourishing and to increase the visibility and impact of existing academic and community resources in the Pittsburgh area.

We are proactively looking for opportunities to connect and support scholars and healthcare practitioners working in complementary areas related to spirituality and healthcare and we are creating research clusters, reading groups, and programming to generate productive partnerships on the ground.

You’re invited to get involved! — we recommend browsing our religion and medicine resources map to locate courses of study or working groups that spark your interest. We plan to update this with new resources as we learn about them. If you teach courses, conduct research, sponsor events, or otherwise are engaged with religion, spirituality, and health care at Pitt or UPMC, we would like to include your project(s) on the resource map. We would also be interested in discussing new ideas and directions for this area at Pitt. email us at ashear@pitt.edu