Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Conceptual issues in spiritual healing
- 2 The historical Jesus and healing: Jesus' miracles in psychosocial context
- 3 The theology of spiritual healing
- 4 Healing the spirit: mystical Judaism, religious texts and medicine
- 5 Conceptualizations of spiritual healing: Christian and secular
- 6 The psychodynamics of spiritual healing and the power of mother kissing it better
- 7 Spiritual healing in the context of the human need for safeness, connectedness and warmth: a biopsychosocial approach
- 8 Modelling the biomedical role of spirituality through breast cancer research
- 9 Spirituality and health: assessing the evidence
- 10 Relating spiritual healing and science: some critical reflections
- 11 Concluding integration
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Healing the spirit: mystical Judaism, religious texts and medicine
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Conceptual issues in spiritual healing
- 2 The historical Jesus and healing: Jesus' miracles in psychosocial context
- 3 The theology of spiritual healing
- 4 Healing the spirit: mystical Judaism, religious texts and medicine
- 5 Conceptualizations of spiritual healing: Christian and secular
- 6 The psychodynamics of spiritual healing and the power of mother kissing it better
- 7 Spiritual healing in the context of the human need for safeness, connectedness and warmth: a biopsychosocial approach
- 8 Modelling the biomedical role of spirituality through breast cancer research
- 9 Spirituality and health: assessing the evidence
- 10 Relating spiritual healing and science: some critical reflections
- 11 Concluding integration
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Religion and medicine have always been close bed partners throughout history. Not only do religious systems offer some explanation for suffering in general and for sickness in particular, but illness presents a challenge to all concerned and it is not surprising that appeal is frequently made to supernatural entities for help, whether this be to provide an explanation to cope with the specific sickness or to offer cure, or something which we might term a ‘miracle’. Religious systems seem to have little internal logical self-consistency. Episodes of sickness of any degree of intensity frequently occasion the question ‘why me?’ and raise concerns relating to theodicy, that is, attempts to reconcile the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the belief in an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God; in effect, the problem of evil. Consequently all religions offer a range of solutions to this problem, ranging from ideas that evil originates from mankind to the idea that suffering has educational value or the conclusion that we can never know God's ways, as exemplified in the book of Job, to list just a few.
The term ‘healing’ within religion is generally more holistic than that within biomedicine and encompasses body, psyche and soul. The monotheistic religions deploy a plethora of techniques related to healing, both individual and collective; ranging from prayer, ritual, the recitation of myths and religious texts to the more empirical techniques of laying on of hands and the syncretic techniques deployed by religious healers in many parts of the world which combine prayer with the use of medicines.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Spiritual HealingScientific and Religious Perspectives, pp. 64 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011