Healing in the History of Christianity

by Amanda Porterfield

Healing is one of the most constant themes in the long and sprawling history of Christianity. Jesus himself performed many miracles of healing. In the second century, St. Ignatius was the first to describe the eucharist as the medicine of immortality. Prudentius, a 4th-century poet and Christian apologist, celebrated the healing power of St. Cyprian's tongue. Bokenham, in his 15th-century Legendary, reported the healing power of milk from St. Agatha's breasts. Zulu prophets in 19th-century Natal petitioned Jesus to cure diseases caused by restless spirits. And Mary Baker Eddy invoked the Science of Divine Mind as a weapon against malicious animal magnetism. In this book Amanda Porterfield demonstrates that healing has played a major role in the historical development of Christianity as a world religion. Porterfield traces the origin of Christian healing and maps its transformations in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds. She shows that Christian healing had its genesis in
Judean beliefs that sickness and suffering were linked to sin and evil, and that health and healing stemmed from repentance and divine forgiveness. Examining Jesus' activities as a healer and exorcist, she shows how his followers carried his combat against sin and evil and his compassion for suffering into new and very different cultural environments, from the ancient Mediterranean to modern America and beyond. She explores the interplay between Christian healing and medical practice from ancient times up to the present, looks at recent discoveries about religion's biological effects, and considers what these findings mean in light of ages-old traditions about belief and healing. Changing Christian ideas of healing, Porterfield shows, are a window into broader changes in religious authority, church structure, and ideas about sanctity, history, resurrection, and the kingdom of God. Her study allows us to see more clearly than ever before that healing has always been and remains central
to the Christian vision of sin and redemption, suffering and bodily resurrection.

Genres: History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Amanda Porterfield is the Robert A. Spivey Professor of Religion and History at Florida State University. She is the author of several books in American religious history and the history of Christianity, including Corporate Spirit: Religion's Role in the Long History Behind Corporate America.

Reviews

[Denise Kettering · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides an overview of aspects related to the practice of healing within the broad scope of the Christian tradition. This is definitely an overview text that demonstrates a broad swath of Christianity from Eastern Christianity to mission movements. However, as an overview text, it does jump around a bit and certain things are covered in great detail while others receive barely a passing glance. For example, there is no discussion of the practice of anointing anywhere the book, despite that being a prescribed practice for healing in the biblical book of James. What Porterfield does well in the book is highlight the ways in which healing has often been accompanied by medical practices and has contributed to medical developments, thus countering some ideas that seeking Christian forms of healing means abandoning medical practices. As an overview text, there is a great deal of material that can inform the reader about differing views and perspectives that Christians have held around healing.

[Daniel Mcgregor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing book. Within the historical epics its organization is all well and done, within each historical epic the author tends to jump from one subject matter to another. Its more cultural history then it is about the development of doctrine or the record of healing(s) within the historical church.

[Roland Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great on some things, terrible on others. See my full review here: http://andthewordsbecamebooks.wordpre...