Specific examples of a religious tradition and its influence on health include:
1. Judaism is rich in health-related proscriptions—from diet to activity to human relations and so forth.
2. The Catholic religion forbids abortion. 3. The Jehovah’s Witnesses forbid blood transfusions. 4. The Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists prohibit the use of caf-
feine and tobacco.
An additional way of understanding the relationship of religion to health is to conceptualize religion as
1. particular churches or organized religious institutions; 2. a scholarly field of study; and 3. the domain of life that deals with things of the spirit and matters of
“ultimate concern.”