Ellen L. Idler. 2014. Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health. New York: Oxford University Press. $42.00. Paperback. 445 pp. ISBN‐13: 978‐0199362219.

• Author: Daniel C. Ehlke
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.135
• Published date: 01 June 2015
• Date: 01 June 2015

Book Review

Ellen L. Idler. 2014. Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health. New York:

Oxford University Press. $42.00. Paperback. 445 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0199362219.

Many say that God works in mysterious ways. The same can very much be

said for religion as a posited social determinant of health, and herein lies the

challenge Ellen Idler valiantly takes on in her edited volume, Religion as a Social

Determinant of Public Health. The social determinants movement has woven and

wended its way through the academy, public health bodies, and even institutional

arms of the United Nations. Led by such distinguished academics and

practitioners as Sir Michael Marmot, the body of literature it has produced has

convincingly highlighted the importance of considering variables like built

environment, social class, and education in explaining differential health out-

comes across populations. Where the social determinants school continues to

struggle is in precisely parsing out the causal mechanisms at play, and how they

interact when it comes to each such variable, or group of variables.

Idler similarly labors to move beyond the identif‌ication of simple correlation,

but illuminating religion as a contributor to public health outcomes is, itself, no

small accomplishment, and she is to be lauded for breaking ground in what could

become a fertile body of scholarship. Her book’s opening chapters are informative

and may be of considerable interest to scholars of religion, but have relatively little

to say about the impact of various faiths and faith practices on public health, per

se. Here a veritable kaleidoscope of faith traditions and practices are introduced by

practitioners and, in some cases, religious leaders. While the specif‌ics relating to

certain meditation practices in the Buddhist tradition are interesting to the

uninitiated, and undoubtedly can have certain positive effects on individual mental

and emotional health, it is unclear how this necessarily “scales up” to impact

public health. It is in the subsequent parts of the book where the connections

between the two are explored more thoroughly.

The fundamental duality of religion’s impact on public health is explored:

while religious observance can lead to increased social capital and specif‌ic healthful

behaviors, strong belief can also preclude certain much-needed health practices

and interventions. In the United States, this dichotomy has tended to track

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2015

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1948-4682 #2015 Policy Studies Organization

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