Faith Cure: Divine Healing in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements

by Nancy A. Hardesty

This book will look at the second element: the roots of divine healing, its results, its practitioners, its cultural milieu, its biblical and theological foundations and its relevance today. In general, in this period Holiness and Pentecostal leaders offered healing as an experience and expectation within the community of faith and did not see themselves in any way as dispensers of healing. Their teaching and practice has persisted in many churches today. Hardesty focuses on the period from roughly 1870 to 1920, and in the last chapters, discusses spiritual healing and its connection with the broader cultural search for alternative medicines.

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Brendon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The books itself presents a rather comprehensive history of faith healing in America from the mid 1800's until the early 1900's. The issue I had with the book is that the author does not seem to interrogate her sources, and at times it reads like a hagiography. Good book to go to if you need to know about faith healing, but this is probably not the best resource.

[Nadya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Faith Cure is a good introduction to the Holiness and Pentacostal movements that happened in the 19th and early 20th century in the USA. The book's focus is on the movements' focus on divine healing. The author uses many 'case studies' in order to paint a picture of divine healers in the 20th century. It is a good work of historical research; I did not find it otherwise that compelling of a read. (But my bias is that I quite prefer contemporary ethnographic writing).