Religious Faith and Health

According to The Guardian, studies show that behaviors and attitudes associated with religious faith can benefit believers’ health in many ways. As a professor of public health at the University of California at Berkley put it, “Religious and spiritual traditions give you access to different methods of coping that have distinctive benefits” (December 3, 2022). The news source notes that “the evidence base linking faith to better health has been decades in the making and now encompasses thousands of studies.” Long-term studies demonstrate that the level of religious commitment, measured by how often a person attends church, was consistently associated with “a lower risk of depression, anxiety and suicide and reduced cardiovascular disease and death from cancer.”

The article suggests, “One obvious explanation for these findings is that people of faith live cleaner lives than the non-religious: studies show that churchgoers are indeed less likely to smoke, drink, take drugs or practise unsafe sex than people who do not attend a service regularly”—choices that reflect biblical values. Social connections from church help protect against feelings of loneliness and isolation and have been shown to reduce stress and stress-related illnesses. The Bible encourages a focus on gratitude and being thankful—another factor known to reduce stress and increase happiness. Finally, religious faith is also associated with a sense of purpose for living, which has been demonstrated to increase one’s sense of wellbeing and to have a positive impact on one’s health.

Few today realize how unique the Bible is when it comes to divinely inspired guidelines about health. To discover more about the practical health-related aspects of the Christian faith that predate modern scientific discoveries in medicine, read or listen to our free booklet Biblical Principles of Health—it could change your life.