In recent years, the role of religion in influencing international health policy and health services provision has been seen as increasingly important. This book provides a social history of the relationship between religion and America's international health policy and practice from the latter 19th century to the present. The book demonstrates that the fields of religion and public health have distinct moral frameworks, each with their own rationales, assumptions, and motivations. While these two frameworks share significant synergies, substantial tensions also exist, which are negotiated in political contexts.

The book traces the origins of religion’s influence on public health to the Progressive Era in the latter half of the 19th century, examines tensions that arose in the first half of the 20th century, describes the divorce between religion and international health from the 1940s through the 1980s, identifies the sources of the renewed interest in the relationship between religion and international health, and anticipates the future contours of religion and international health in light of contemporary political and economic forces.While the influence of religion on international health practice and policy in the United States serves as the focus of the book, the effects of US policies on international health policies in general are also explored in depth, especially in the book’s later chapters.

This ambitious study of religion’s social history in the United States over the last 150 years will be of interest to researchers in global health, politics, religion and development studies.

近年来，宗教在影响国际卫生政策和卫生服务提供方面的作用被认为是越来越重要。本书对19世纪后半叶至今，宗教与美国的国际卫生政策和实践之间的关系进行了社会史研究。本书表明，宗教和公共卫生领域有不同的道德框架，各自有自己的理由、假设和动机。虽然这两个框架有着显著的协同作用，但也存在着实质性的紧张关系，这些紧张关系是在政治背景下协商解决的。

本书将宗教对公共卫生的影响追溯到19世纪后半叶的进步时代，研究了20世纪上半叶出现的紧张关系，描述了1940年代至1980年代宗教与国际卫生之间的分离，确定了对宗教与国际卫生关系重新感兴趣的来源，并根据当代政治和经济力量预测了宗教与国际卫生的未来轮廓。 虽然宗教对美国国际卫生实践和政策的影响是本书的重点，但也深入探讨了美国政策对国际卫生政策的总体影响，特别是在本书后面的章节。

这项关于过去150年中美国宗教社会历史的雄心勃勃的研究将引起全球卫生、政治、宗教和发展研究者的兴趣。