Candy Gunther Brown, Ph.D.

Candy Gunther Brown, Ph.D., is an associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University. She received her B.A. (1992; summa cum laude), M.A. (1995), and Ph.D. (2000) degrees from Harvard University. Dr. Brown is the author of Testing Prayer: Science and Healing (Harvard University Press, 2012), Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing, as editor (Oxford University Press, 2011), and The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789-1880 (University of North Carolina Press, 2004). Her current book projects are The Healing Gods of Christian America: Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Mainstream and Miracle Cures? Divine Healing and Deliverance in America. She has also published more than fifty journal articles, book chapters, and review essays.

Some of the questions Dr. Brown asks are: Can science prove the healing power of prayer? Is religion good (or bad) for your health? How do we understand miracles and demons in a scientific age?

With these inquiries in mind, she teaches university courses and gives numerous community lectures and media interviews on the subjects of Prayer, Science, and Healing; Religion, Illness, and Healthcare Management; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; and Exorcism. Dr. Brown studies the health effects of prayer, religious belief, and complementary and alternative medicine, and has conducted extensive empirical research in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Mozambique. She grew up in the agriculturally fertile Central Valley of California and enjoys tasty, plant-based whole foods and outdoor activities, such as rollerblading, cycling, running, hiking, and backcountry camping.