The Institute and Baylor University Center for Ethics to Co-Host Conference on Medicine and Religion in Houston, March 22 through March 24, 2026
NEWS RELEASE
HOUSTON, Texas (Nov. 14, 2025) – The Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center and Baylor University Center for Ethics will co-host the 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion March 22 through March 24, 2026. The local planning committee includes leaders from across the Texas Medical Center: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann, Menninger Clinic, Michael DeBakey VA Medical Center, Rice University’s Medical Humanities Research Institute, UH College of Medicine, and UTHealth Houston.
This conference will be held at the Houston Hilton Post Oak by the Galleria, 2001 Post Oak Blvd., in Houston. Conference organizers are expecting to attract approximately 400 healthcare professionals, researchers, scholars, students, and faith leaders from the United States and other countries.
To see a brief video about the Conference on Medicine and Religion and its purpose, please click here.
Registration is now open. Register at https://www.spiritualityandhealth.org/events/cmr2026.
Launched in Chicago in May 2012, the Conference on Medicine and Religion remains a leading forum for discourse and scholarship at the intersection of medicine and religion. The conference enables health and wellness professionals and scholars to gain a deeper, practical understanding of how religion relates to the practice of medicine.
The 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion is being held in Houston in celebration of the Institute for Spirituality and Health’s 70th Anniversary. Founded in 1955 as the Institute for Religion, it established the first chaplaincy training as a founding member of the Texas Medical Center, and is celebrated for its pioneering work in medical ethics and decades of discourse at the intersection of spirituality and health.
Stuart Nelson, president and chief executive officer of the Institute, explained the theme of this year’s conference, “The Prophetic Voice: Creativity, Compassion, and the Pursuit of Healing.”
“The 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion invites participants to explore how the expressions of religious traditions have the capacity to critique and to creatively reimagine medicine and the pursuit of healing,” Nelson said. “Religious traditions have long offered not only moral frameworks but also cultural expressions—music, rituals, architecture, food, and stories—that sustain communities through times of suffering and transformation. Similarly, in medicine, healing practices have always involved more than just clinical intervention; they have drawn on deep wells of creativity, imagination, presence, and meaning.”
Nelson added: “We will pose important theological and clinical questions, and we encourage reflection and discussion among attendees, presenters, and conference leaders.”
Some of these questions include:
What does it mean to speak prophetically within medicine?
How can collective, creative expression heal medicine’s moral imagination in an age of burnout and bureaucratic strain?
Can music, stories, or rituals restore what data and policy cannot?
What resources of wisdom do religious forms of praise and lament offer medical institutions under duress?
How can clinicians, scholars, and chaplains serve as trustworthy witnesses amid polarization?
“Attendees will address these questions and issues in light of religious traditions and practices. The conference serves as an open forum for exchanging ideas from various disciplinary perspectives -- from accounts of clinical practices to empirical research to scholarship in the humanities. This year, we are also creating opportunities for conference participants to enjoy sacred music, to share meals, to experience rituals, and to witness each other’s faith traditions,” said Jeff Sokoloff, vice president of operations for the Institute. Sokoloff has been the conference administrator since 2016.
Each year, the conference is organized by a local planning committee of clinicians and scholars who work at the intersection of medicine and religion. The conference features keynote speakers and presentations of peer-reviewed papers, panels, workshops, and poster sessions.
“Baylor University Center for Ethics is an ideal co-host for the Conference on Medicine and Religion due to its status as a national thought leader in medical humanities and clinical ethics with a strong faith-based foundation. It has been a pleasure to work with our colleagues at Baylor to plan what will be a tremendous offering for the field,” Nelson said.
“Baylor University Center for Ethics is a proud sponsor of the Conference on Medicine and Religion. This gathering fosters meaningful dialogue among healthcare professionals and ethicists seeking to integrate religion and spirituality into healthcare,” said Devan Stahl, PhD, associate professor of Bioethics and Religion at Baylor University and sponsoring institution representative for the 2026 conference.
2026 Local Sponsoring Institutions include Memorial Hermann, Rice University’s Medical Humanities Research Institute, and the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at UTHealth Houston.
Executive Committee Members include Jonathan Weinkle, MD, FAAP, FACP, Chair, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Anastasia Holman, DMin, MDiv, MBA, BCC, Vice-Chair, Indiana University Health; Kristin Collier, MD, FACP, University of Michigan Medical School; Jason Eberl, PhD, Saint Louis University; Kimbell Kornu, MD, PhD, Belmont University; Ekaterina Lomperis, PhD, Baylor University; and Asma Mobin-Uddin, MD, MA, FAAP, The Ohio State University Center for Bioethics. Advisory Board Members include Akbar Ali, MD, Darul Qasim; Jeffrey Bishop, MD, PhD, Saint Louis University, Rev. Karen Bona, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding; W.L. Alan Fung, MD, ScD, University of Toronto; Anastasia Holman, DMin, MDiv, MBA, BCC, Indiana University Health; Brett McCarty, ThD, Mdiv, Duke University Trent Center and Theology, Medicine and Culture Initiative; Stuart Nelson, president and chief executive officer, Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center; Abraham Nussbaum, MD, Denver Health; Grace Oei, MD, MA, HEC-C, Loma Linda University Health; Aasim Padela, MD, MSc, FACEP, Initiative on Islam and Medicine; Kosti Psimopoulos, MD, MBE, Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion at Harvard University; Noam Stadlan, MD, Endeavor Health; Devan Stahl, PhD, Center for Ethics at Baylor University; Daniel Sulmasy, MD, PhD, Georgetown University, Adel Syed, EdD, UMMA Health; Matthew Vest, PhD, The Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the Ohio State University; and Jonathan Weinkle, MD, FAAP, FACP, University of Pittsburgh.
Sustaining Sponsors include Center for Ethics at Baylor University, Darul Qasim, Denver Health, Duke University Trent Center and Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, Indiana University Health, Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion at Harvard University, Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center, Loma Linda University Health, Saint Louis University, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, The Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the Ohio State University, UMMA Health, and University of Pittsburgh.
University of Chicago is a Supporting Sponsor.
For more information about this conference, please visit: www.spiritualityandhealth.org/events/cmr2026
About the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center
The Institute is an independent, interfaith organization established in 1955. A founding member of the world-renowned Texas Medical Center, it continues to make a meaningful difference by cultivating well-being for all community members.
The Institute’s mission is to enhance well-being by exploring the relationship between spirituality and health. It advances this mission through education, research, and direct service programs, guided by its four Centers of Excellence: the Rabbi Samuel E. Karff Center for Healthcare Professionals, the Center for Body, Spirit, and Mind, the Center for End of Life and Aging, and the Center for Faith and Public Health.
For more information about the Institute, please visit www.spiritualityandhealth.org.
Media Contact:
Laura Pennino, Senior PR Consultant for The Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center
mobile: 713-419-1776 | email: lp@penninoandpartners.com