Possibilities and Limits of Medical Science: Debates Over Double‐blind Clinical Trials of Intercessory Prayer

Abstract

This article traces the intellectual history of scientific studies of intercessory prayer published in English between 1965 and the present by focusing on the conflict and discussion they prompted in the medical literature. I analyze these debates with attention to how researchers articulate the possibilities and limits medical science has for studying intercessory prayer over time. I delineate three groups of researchers and commentators: those who think intercessory prayer can and should be studied scientifically, those who are more skeptical and articulate the limits of science around this topic, and those who focus primarily on the pragmatic applications of this knowledge. I analyze these contests as examples of what Thomas Gieryn calls "epistemic authority" as medical researchers engage in what he describes as "boundary-work" or "the discursive attribution of selected qualities to scientists, scientific methods, and scientific claims for the purposes of drawing a rhetorical boundary between science and some less authoritative residual non-science." (Gieryn 1999, 4 (Gieryn 1999).

The Ethics of Ironic Science in Its Search for Spoof

“…Methodologically conservative researchers were vocal about their skepticism towards the legitimacy of the research on intercessory prayer. Cadge (2012) in her comprehensive history of research on intercessory prayer from 1965 to the present refers to responses to one study claiming efficacy for prayer as a ''debate [that] erupted on the pages of the Archives of Internal Medicine when the journal published fourteen letters to the editor that took issue with the study'' (p. 52). Third, this paper has provoked more than 60 published responses in the research archive in which the authors who cite Leibovici have made their understanding of his paper explicit.…”

Navigating the cartographies of trust: how patients and carers establish the credibility of online treatment claims

“…Gieryn's ideas have found useful application in sociological studies of various professional areas, in revealing how disputes between contending experts are negotiated (e.g. Burri , Cadge , González , Kurath ). In such studies, the application of the concept of ‘boundary‐work’, whereby the contours of a field are mapped so as to establish claims in a contested territory of legitimacy, has proved insightful.…”

Traditional Healing, Biomedicine and the Treatment of HIV/AIDS: Contrasting South African and Native American Experiences

“…Scientists and biomedical practitioners continue to debate hotly the extent to which the impact of prayer can be studied objectively. Be that as it may, it can be taken that many patients and practitioners within the biomedical system believe in the power of supernatural intercession [ 43 ]. Critically, as an extension, the majority of patients also see no conflict in requesting supernatural intercession whilst being treated within a healthcare framework that offers no ontological space for the supernatural.…”