The Dark Side of Prayer for Healing

Bibliographic Data

ID20161568
AuthorsShane Clifton (0000-0003-3160-7131, Alphacrucis College, Sydney, Australia, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume36
Issue2
Pages204-225
Publication date2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePneuma (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0272-0965 • E-ISSN: 1570-0747
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700747-03602003
OpenAlexW153677420
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited1

This paper explores the relationship between disability and pentecostal theologies and practices of healing. First, it draws on the testimony of people with a disability, describing the challenge of being the “elephant in the room”: the obviously unhealed in a social space in which supernatural healing is understood to be connected to the gospel, a reward of faith, and a central part of a life and ministry of the church. Second, it deconstructs pentecostal theologies and practices of healing, identifying their potentially alienating effect. Finally, it proposes an alternative orientation, replacing the emphasis upon divine healing with a focus on well-being. To this end, it draws on the holistic intention of the pentecostal Full Gospel and relates this to the virtue tradition, with its concern for long-term flourishing in the midst of the hardship and fragility of life

Aesthetics · Art · Christian ministry · Environmental ethics · Faith · Faith healing · Flourishing · Gospel · Great Rift · Prayer · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Theology · Virtue · Christian Theology and Mission · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Philosophy · Postmodernism in Literature and Education · Psychology · Social Psychology

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