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.

医学和祷告的治愈力量通常是媒体的头条新闻。 没有探讨的是媒体本身如何塑造有关宗教和健康的流行观点。 本书追溯医学，媒体和宗教从十九世纪中叶的美国文化到今天的汇合。 巴达拉克研究媒体如何描绘宗教信仰和医学之间的关系，表明这种关系充满了利益冲突，争议和悖论。本书提供了解构宗教和医学由当今的媒体形成宝贵的见解。

The first chapter focuses on Sophia Peabody (1809-1871), one of thousands of nineteenth-century invalids who endured vague, debilitating symptoms.

Claire Hoertz Badaracco (Ph. D. Rutgers) is Full Professor in the College of Communication, Marquette University. She is the editor of "Quoting God: How Media Shape Ideas about Religion and Culture" (Baylor University Press, 2005), "Trading Words: Poetry, Typography, and Illustrated Books in the Modern Literary Economy" (1995) and " American Culture and the Marketplace" (1992).