Recovering religion: practising intersectoral cooperation in a time of cholera

ABSTRACT

Due to social and historical forces resistant to predictions of religion’s waning influence in the modern world, responses to contemporary epidemics continue to involve local religious entities and global religious networks. This viewpoint draws on the history of the 1854 cholera epidemic in London to highlight how histories of cooperation between religion and public health can help focus current thinking about the potential for intersectoral cooperation in response to modern epidemics.

En raison des forces sociales et historiques résistantes aux prédictions d'une érosion de l'influence de la religion dans le monde moderne, les ripostes aux épidémies contemporaines continuent d'impliquer les entités religieuses locales et les réseaux religieux mondiaux. Ce point de vue se base sur l'histoire de l'épidémie de choléra de 1854 pour souligner comment les histoires de coopération entre religion et santé publique peuvent aider à focaliser la pensée actuelle sur le potentiel pour la coopération intersectorielle dans la riposte aux épidémies modernes.

Debido a la existencia de fuerzas sociales e históricas renuentes a aceptar los pronósticos relativos a la decreciente influencia de la religión en el mundo moderno, las entidades religiosas locales y las redes religiosas a nivel global continúan involucrándose en la respuesta a epidemias contemporáneas. El presente punto de vista aborda la historia de la epidemia de cólera que se propagó en Londres durante 1854, con el propósito de destacar la manera en que las historias de cooperación entre sectores religiosos y de salud pública contribuyen a centrar el pensamiento actual en la posibilidad de lograr la cooperación intersectorial orientada a responder a las epidemias modernas.

KEYWORDS:

• Social sector
• Health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Matthew Bersagel Braley is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Master of Arts in Servant Leadership in the College of Business and Leadership at Viterbo University, La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States.

Notes

1. While the history of religious engagement with public health, most notably in the HIV pandemic, has offered plenty of fodder for critics of religion, in general, the rise to prominence of the social determinants of health framework as well as the research on religious health assets has, in my estimation, opened up conceptual space for scholars to argue on empirical grounds for greater attention to examples of cooperation and their implications for future partnerships. See, for example, Litsios (2004); Olivier (2015); Ter Haar (2011).

2. As proponents of the religious health assets approach, myself included, are quick to point out, though, these same pathways that could be leveraged for global health and development can – and have – also been used to create fractures and fault lines within communities and across borders. See Cochrane, Schmid, and Cutts (2011).