Can progressive Christians take the New Testament healing stories seriously?  Our response to this question will reflect our understanding of the “organic relationship of Christian thought and action” that is at the heart of Transforming Theology’s mission.

Too often “progressives” like John Shelby Spong and John Dominic Crossan have been too “conservative” in their interpretations of the healing narratives of the gospels.  They have unnecessarily limited – in their dialogue with modernity – God’s power and our own power to transform human life. While many progressives, including Spong and Crossan, are: 1) appropriately nervous about supernaturalism and 2) appropriately affirm the healings as involving the transformation of persons’ social position (moving them from outsider to insider status in Jesus’ community of radical hospitality), contemporary medical research, global medicine, and the emerging organic vision of human life open the door for new and expanded understandings of healing and wholeness.  For example, the woman with the flow of blood, described in Mark 5:25-34, experiences a flow of dynamic energy not unlike the Chinese concept of chi utilized in healing practices such as Reiki, therapeutic touch, and other forms of healing touch.  Further, her faith in Jesus’ healing power opens her to surprising healing energies, not unlike what physicians now positively describe as the placebo effect.

I believe that we live in a world in which energies are constantly flowing through our lives.  Practices such as prayer, touch, positive thinking, and visualization awaken us to greater manifestations of God’s aim at beauty and wholeness.  This is in line with current understandings of non-local causation, quantum entanglement and causation, and medical research on the role of prayer in health outcomes and the mind-body relationship.  Using these spiritual/healing practices may, in fact, enable God to be more fully present in our lives in ways that promote health and wholeness.

I believe that the progressive Christian vision is quite receptive to the non-supernatural understandings of Jesus’ healing ministry and our ability to share in God’s aim at healing and wholeness of mind, body, spirit, and relationships in our time.  Progressive theology affirms the following:

·       God aims at healing, wholeness, and beauty in every situation.

·       God’s aim encompasses bodies as well as minds.

·       Mind and body are intimately connected.

·       Influence can occur “at a distance” as well among contiguous events, thus inviting us to take intercessory prayer seriously.

·       Our own or others’ openness to God’s aims can transform our own or others’ lives.

·       Every moment of experience is self-creative. We are free to respond creatively, rather than being victims, of disease.

·       Prayer opens a “healing field” around ourselves and those for whom we pray.

From this perspective, we can affirm and go beyond Crossan’s sociological understanding of healing.  As a result of the intimate relationship of Jesus to the divine (Jesus as living fully in the dynamic divine-human call and response, in which God calls and we respond and we call and God responds), Jesus “mediated” the divine energy of the universe in superlative ways; Jesus awakened persons to their own healing powers and opened them to God’s healing touch; and Jesus invited persons to become actors rather than victims in responding to illness.  We can affirm that Jesus cured people in his time and that in the context of western and complementary medicine, our prayers and healing touch can promote cures and healings of body, mind, and spirit.

Today’s progressive Christians can, without predicting an outcome or expecting supernatural intervention: 1) pray for healing for themselves and others; 2) organize healing services; 3) integrate Christianity with healing modalities such as reiki healing touch; and 4) promote holistic healing and self-care.  We can truly be progressive in our embrace of a larger naturalism, inclusive of mystical experiences and healing energies.

For more on progressive Christian responses to healing, see: Bruce Epperly, God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus; Healing Worship: Purpose and Practice; and Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus (written with Kate Epperly).

Bruce Epperly  is Director of Continuing Education and Professor of Practical Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary and co-pastor of Disciples United Community Church in Lancaster, PA.  He is the author of sixteen books, including “Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living.” (Upper Room, 2008)