Reasoned attention to the nature and role of "drugs" is sorely lacking in the public square and Christian denominational policies alike. King's book will serve a wide array of readers as a foundational text. Covering a stunning span of history, King pulls together crucial considerations that normally remain siloed, if discussed at all. Drawing together history, politics, economics, ethics, psychology, medicine, anthropology, religion, and theology, King has produced in a single volume a coherent narrative about how we have arrived at the current moment in the conversation (or lack thereof) about "drugs." What's equally impressive, however, is King's ability to convey this vast amount of research and complicated, fraught terrain in such an engaging way. He's an adept storyteller who uses language precisely, and you'll find yourself highlighting much of the material or responding in the margins of your volume. In a subject largely driven by political and economic interests, and fraught with visceral emotional reaction passing for moral argument, King provides the material necessary for considering the topic afresh in a calm, reasoned way. King writes from both personal experience and the results of academic research, and as one who is committed to soul care.

--Jaime Clark-Soles, professor of New Testament, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University In What Are Drugs For?Tim King tells a story hidden in plain sight within the narratives we think we know--stories of religion and spirituality, diverse cultures, philosophy, and politics, all deeply implicated with questions of gender, race, and class. With remarkable interdisciplinary breadth and creative reasoning, King reveals that the categories we use to organize our debates about drugs--medicine versus intoxicant, sacred versus profane, therapy versus addiction--are cultural constructions shaped by historical contingency rather than pharmacological reality. By excavating the forgotten religious and social meanings of psychoactive substances from ancient anointing oils to modern prohibition, King doesn't just challenge our assumptions; he opens entirely new terrain for thinking about human flourishing, the limits of state power, and what we owe one another in addressing both the promises and the perils of consciousness-altering substances. --Natalie Wigg-Stevenson, associate professor of contextual education and theology, Emmanuel College of Victoria University What Are Drugs For?is a necessary theological disruption, naming how fear, racialized moralism, and carceral imagination have shaped our stories about drugs more than love, truth, or care have. Timothy McMahan King invites us to reckon with how theology has been weaponized against vulnerable bodies and calls us toward an ethic rooted in dignity, historical honesty, and communal responsibility. This book does not ask us to abandon moral seriousness; it demands that we finally place justice, healing, and human flourishing at its center. --Melva L. Sampson,author of The Pink Robe Chronicles: Womanist Wisdom for Healing, Liberation, and Love This is one of the most important books ever written about mind-altering substances.

Theologically literate, historically critical, and ethically rigorous, What Are Drugs For?offers several persuasive answers to its titular question. Grounded in Christian ethics but epistemically humble and pluralistic, Timothy McMahan-King takes us from the Temple in Jerusalem to the opium dens of England, finally arriving at a place of neither condemnation nor cheerleading but reverence for the powerful psychoactive compounds that humankind has explored, venerated, and sometimes abused throughout its history. --Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson, Emory Center for Psychedelics & Spirituality.