© Shutterstock 

What is faith healing? -

Faith healing is a method of treating illnesses through the exercise of faith rather than medical methods.

© Shutterstock

Faith healing defined -

In other words, there are those who when sick, perhaps ill with infection or suffering another serious ailment, and who require professional medical attention, also employ the healing properties of religion. This is called faith healing.

© Shutterstock 

What's the idea? -

The basic idea behind the notion of faith healing is that the supernatural power of a divine being can cure health problems as well as or better than medical science.

© Shutterstock 

Global reach -

Faith healing is thousands of years old, and has deep cultural roots all over the world.

© Shutterstock 

Christianity and faith healing -

In Christianity, faith healing is exemplified especially in the miraculous cures wrought by Jesus and by his Apostles. Examples include healing two blind men (pictured) — Matthew 9:27-31.

© Getty Images 

Miracles recorded in the Gospels -

Another example of a miracle performed by Jesus is the healing of a deaf and mute man — Mark 7:31-37.

© Getty Images 

Martyred saints -

In the 4th century, a fascination with martyred saints led to a cultural obsession with relics in Europe. Saints and their relics had long been known for their miraculous cures, and these holy items could be anything from shards of wood believed to be from the original cross to bones said to be taken from the dead saint's graves.

© Getty Images 

Religious relics -

By the Middle Ages, both saints and their relics were believed to be able to perform miracles. However, there were still some medieval priests that pored scorn over most treatments, describing them as magical and sacrilegious while impressing upon their flock that magic arts and incantations could not bring about any remedy for any human illnesses. Instead, they endorsed exorcisms and amulets as holy.

© Getty Images 

Jean Calvin (1509–1564) -

In the 16th century, mockery of the clergy and condemning of the cult of saints flourished. Much of European society challenged the validity of healing miracles promoted by, and benefiting, the Catholic Church. Among those leading the charge was French theologian Jean Calvin, who condemned petitions to the saints for healing miracles as misguided and sinful.

© Getty Images 

Work of the missionary -

As Western Christianity expanded exponentially throughout the 19th century, so too did the attitudes surrounding the teachings of Jesus Christ. Ideas about the social implications of the healing power of salvation from sin and the eternal life of Christ were enthusiastically promoted by missionaries. Indeed, the message was more about Christianity's healing of social ills than the miraculous cure of physical illness.

© Getty Images 

Medical advances -

The 19th century witnessed extraordinary advances in medicine. Scientific breakthroughs in asepsis (a condition in which no living disease-causing microorganisms are present), anesthesia, and infectious disease increased the effectiveness of Western medicine. As a result, traditional faith healing practices were deemed redundant and instead medical missions became increasingly useful as a means of demonstrating the positive benefits of Christianity, and to emulate the compassion of Jesus and his healing ministry.

© Shutterstock 

Different emphasis -

Today, the idea that instant miracles cure physical illnesses and conditions hold little sway in the modern Catholic Church. Instead, emphasis is placed on the idea of slowly improving the lives of believers by restoring family relationships or fostering a stronger faith in God.

© Shutterstock 

Imposition of hands -

That said, symbolic rituals rooted in the practice of traditional faith healing still exist. The early church sanctioned faith healing through such practices as anointing and the imposition of hands, a rite still carried out today.

© Getty Images 

Laying on of hands -

Also known as the laying on of hands, the rite of imposing hands on the head of another is one of the most frequent in both the Old and New Testaments and in Christian liturgy, although in very different circumstances and with different significations. The imposition of hands was first practiced in Judaism and was adopted by Christianity. The idea seems to be that of the transmission of some power or quality, in most cases beneficent and mainly by way of conferring a blessing.

© Getty Images 

Spiritual healing -

At this stage it's worth pointing out the difference between faith healing and spiritual healing. Advocates of spiritual healing make no attempt to seek divine intervention, instead believing in divine energy. This practice is commonly referred to as alternative medicine.

© Shutterstock 

The power of prayer -

In 2016, CNN reported on a study that revealed that about nine out of 10 Americans have relied on healing prayer at some point in their lives. Furthermore, the findings suggested that prayer might be one of the most widely used forms of medical treatment.

© Shutterstock 

Seeing the light -

Earlier, in 2009, U.S. Catholic magazine ran a story about a Indiana resident who'd had problems with his eyesight since childhood. The possibility and the risks of a corneal transplant were very real. Unable to endure the thought of an operation, the man prayed to God to improve his vision. According to the report, when he woke up the next morning his eye was better. There was no medical explanation for why the eye had healed.

© Shutterstock 

Spiritual and paranormal -

Faith healing can be classified as a spiritual, supernatural, or paranormal topic. But how does one go about healing by faith alone?

© Shutterstock 

Types of faith healing -

There are several different types of faith healing. Intercessory prayer, for example, involves the prayers of the patient, and those of the patient's friends and family or of total strangers, combined to positively affect the outcome of an illness, injury, or disease.

© Shutterstock 

Intercessory prayer -

On occasion, intercessory prayer appears to inspire a miracle, perhaps when a patient with a spinal injury regains the ability to walk. Sceptics note, however, that most "walking miracles" are a result of intensive rehabilitation or revolutionary treatment.

© Shutterstock 

Preaching faith -

Faith healing also manifests itself in the form of charismatic preachers who claim to possess the divine power to cure disease and heal injuries. History has recorded many such individuals, including the evangelist John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907), who set up healing ministries in San Francisco and Chicago in the 1890s and early 1900s, and who offered to pray for the healing of anyone willing to make a donation to his cause. Dowie is pictured in 1903 preaching to the faithful at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

© Getty Images

Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944) -

According to an eyewitness account, Canadian evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was responsible for giving a man a new arm through the power of prayer.

© Getty Images 

Angelus Temple -

In the early 1920s, Lora Barrett was attending a religious service conducted by McPherson at the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. A young man missing his left arm asked McPherson to pray for him. This she did and within minutes a "brand new elbow [...] grew all the way down to his fingernails."

© Getty Images 

Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916) -

One of the most notorious "faith healers" was Rasputin. The Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man was tasked with finding a cure for the hemophilia suffered by Alexei, the young son of Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. But rather than acting as a healer for the imperial couple's sick child, Rasputin's scandalous and sinister reputation helped discredit the czarist government, which precipitated the eventual overthrow of the Romanov dynasty.

© Getty Images 

Natural springs -

Faith may reside in a particular place, which then becomes the focus of pilgrimages for the sufferers. In ancient Egypt and Greece, for example, temples erected to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, were often near natural springs, the curative power of water being a long-standing and widespread belief.

© Getty Images 

Lourdes, France -

At Lourdes in France, one of the world's most important sites of pilgrimage, devotees come to bathe in the water that gushes from the source of the natural springs. Numerous purported miracle cures have been documented here, from the healing of nervous disorders and cancers to cases of paralysis and even of blindness.

© Getty Images 

Fátima, Portugal -

The Sanctuary at Fátima in Portugal draws millions of pilgrims every year, many arriving clutching wax limbs corresponding to their own painful or diseased body part. The wax offering is made in the hope that a divine remedy will be forthcoming.

© Shutterstock 

Modern-day faith healing -

According to healing visionary research and resource company Barna, the majority of Americans (66%) believe that God can physically heal people supernaturally. And there are even forms of Christianity whose doctrines embrace modern-day miracles as an everyday part of a believer's life.

© Shutterstock 

Charismatic Christianity -

For example, Charismatic Christianity is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and modern-day miracles as a given. The COVID-19 pandemic saw some Charismatic Christians turn to prayer to combat the coronavirus. But how do you heal in a socially distant era? According to The Washington Post, worried worshippers who'd tested positive for the virus took to calling a healing hotline at the height of the pandemic believing that a prayer recited over the telephone could cure them of their condition.

© Getty Images 

Pseudoscience, or nonmedical possibility? -

While virtually all scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience, the fact remains that not everyone pursues faith healing only for deeply religious and cultural reasons. Instead, people who are severely ill eventually run out of medical options, and in desperation turn to nonmedical possibilities.

Sources: (Encyclopedia) (Britannica) (Social History of Medicine) (Bulletin of the History of Medicine) (CNN) (U.S. Catholic) (SpinalCord.com) (Healing and Revival) (Foursquare) (The Washington Post) (Barna Group)

See also: Celebrities who follow their faith religiously

© Shutterstock