Spirituality, Health, and the Social Determinants of Healing - A Decolonial Approach

This course explores the relationship between religion, health, healing, and community well-being through a decolonial lens. Students examine how Indigenous, African, and Abrahamic traditions understand health not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as an expression of cosmology, relationality, land-based practice, and spiritual continuity. Drawing on public health frameworks, Indigenous health models, place-based epistemologies, and decolonial critique, the course investigates how colonialism in the Americas and Africa reshaped spiritual and medical landscapes—marginalizing traditional healing practices, severing communities from land and ceremony, and creating enduring health inequities. Through the methodological thread of storying, students analyze how communities narrate illness, suffering, resilience, and healing; how religion functions as a social determinant of health; and how the colonial vs. communal gaze shapes health-seeking behaviour, public policy, and collective flourishing. The course equips students to envision what healing and community flourishing looks like beyond empire-building aspirations—rooted in cosmology, community, and the interconnectedness of all life.