Research on religion, health, and well-being has proliferated in recent years to the point of becoming unmanageable. Theologians do not know what to make of this abundant research. On the one hand, the results clearly point to a moderately positive effect of religion on these human dimensions; indeed, they inspire a certain renewed interest in religion and its function or utility. On the other hand, its methods (predominantly empirical) and its approach (typically pragmatic) strike theology as something quite foreign to its own tradition.
A question worth further exploration is whether the subdiscipline of science and religion is better equipped and could provide a more suitable framework to receive and manage this research. After all, the health sciences are a well-established scientific field, and no one doubts the epistemic and methodological quality of their status as a science. However, as far as I know, theologians engaged in dialogue with science have paid very little attention to these developments, perhaps because they have focused more on other natural sciences (physics, biology, neuroscience...) and have simply neglected the health sciences, considering them more applied or secondary, despite their undeniably greater social impact.
This article aims to highlight the role that the health sciences can play in this dialogue with theology, pointing to new forms of convergence and conjunction between both disciplines, and to a rich interaction that can help overcome old tensions and prejudices. Health sciences now come to the aid of religion and a more engaged and "lived" theology.