Dorothea Lüddeckens (Prof. Dr.), born in 1966, teaches Study of Religions at the University of Zurich. Her research foci lie in qualitative-empirical research of contemporary religion in Western Europe and contemporary Zoroastrianism, ranging from studies regarding dying and death to research on religion and medicine. She has directed research projects on "Visible Markers of Religious Identity in Public Debate" and "Alternative Religiosity/Spirituality at the End of Life".
Monika Schrimpf (Prof. Dr.), born in 1967, teaches Japanese Studies at the University of Tübingen. She currently holds a Heisenberg professorship and has published on modern and contemporary religions in Japan. Her present research focuses on gender and religion in contemporary Japan. Between 2002 and 2004 she was as research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo.

Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Preface and Acknowledgements 7
Introduction 9
Medicalized Healing in East Africa 23
Medical Discourses and Practices in Contemporary Japanese Religions 57
Self-fashioning of the Hereditary Siddha Practitioner 91
Ayurveda and Discursive Formations between Religion, Medicine and Embodiment 133
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as a Toolkit for Secular Health-Care 167
Crossing Fields 201
Mapping the Boundaries between Science and Religion 241
List of Authors 273