Religious themes in medical journals.

The dialogue between medicine and religion has been expected to intensify. To test the degree of interaction empirically, the contents of four clinical medical journals for the years 1981 to 1991 were examined for reference to religious themes. Religion was important in 13 of 17,345 articles. Reasons proposed for this relative neglect are hostility, lack of interest, inadequate empirical studies, and the substitution of ethics and humanities as surrogates for religion. Scholars of religion are encouraged to submit relevant material to medical journals.