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The demographics portend disaster: an increasingly older population in need of long-term care even as health-care costs rocket upward. The prognosis is widespread shortages of relief for the suffering.

FAITH IN THE FUTURE: Healthcare, Aging, and the Role of Religion by Harold G. Koenig, Douglas M. Lawson, and Malcolm McConnell Templeton Foundation Press, 256 pp.; $24.95

As Faith in the Future makes clear, religious groups will need to step into the breach. This book is full of inspiring stories of people, places, and programs that have harnessed the power of religious faith to improve individual health and contribute to health-care programs.

These stories will motivate and guide people of faith as they apply their beliefs to the health-care crisis. Faith in the Future emphasizes that our nation's 350,000 congregations are a largely untapped resource for health care.

Synthesizing a 2001 conference of the same name held at Duke University, Faith in the Future has the strengths and weaknesses typical of books born in this fashion. Given the wide range of expertise gathered at the conference, the book offers a broad menu of stimulating ideas and experiences.

For example, in the introduction we meet Natalie Romine, a retired social worker in her 80s with severe osteoporosis. She finds great help at a church-based Shepherd's Center exercise class. There are 79 such centers based in churches in 19 states, and an appendix gives contact information for them and other organizations.

At times the book would benefit from more focus, but on balance the value of the assorted ideas far outweighs the occasional disorganization. The book consists of four sections. Part one outlines the current crisis in American health care, which results from an aging population and spiraling costs. Part two summarizes current research and demonstrates the positive role of religious lifestyles in health outcomes. Much of the research supporting this conclusion comes from Duke under the leadership of Harold Koenig, today's most prominent voice in the field of health and spirituality.

These sections offer little new for those familiar with the dynamics of our health-care mess. But the last two parts of the book—"The Role of Caring Communities" and "Implementing the Vision"—provide the true added value.

These chapters show how faith communities are improving the health of the aging population. For example, a chapter on partnerships describes the Wilson Health Ministry in Pennsylvania. It is a combined effort of more than 70 churches, a Presbyterian college, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and uses parish nurses and trained laypeople to provide a wide range of health education and screening services to citizens of rural Franklin County.

The book also provides practical guidance about the pitfalls and challenges of faith-based health-care initiatives. I was particularly pleased with the section on how religious physicians can appropriately interact with their patients. The authors first strongly and appropriately warn: "Clearly, physicians should not 'prescribe' religious beliefs or activities to treat their patients," the authors write. "Physicians should not impose their religious beliefs on patients or initiate prayer without knowledge of the patient's religious background and likely appreciation of such activity. Except in rare instances, physicians should leave in-depth religious counseling to the trained clergy: hospital chaplains, pastoral counselors, and so on."

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January 2005, Vol. 49, No. 1