Transforming Theology
Rekindling Theological Reflection
Progressive Healing?
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)
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Writers of the bible share
Writers of the bible share with us the workings of the Holy Spirit. We do not know why some are healed and some are not but it is still true that healing does take place.
huh?
Ok, so let me get this straight...
It's silly to believe in supernatural healing, but it's acceptable to believe in healing through life force energy?
When as a progressive I came
When as a progressive I came to faith in Jesus, I was not trading conservative xtianity for liberal xtianity, I was trading meaninglessness in a postmodern world for a reasonable faith and hope in the story of Jesus.
so when I read about progressives and divine healing I was intrigued.
because even if the supernaturalists are right, I have a problem with them.
when I was baptist, it seemed like 1 out of 1000 people would recieve a real "miracle"
when I was charismatic, it seemed like 20 out of 1000 would recieve a real "miracle"
well, I am worried about the 980 who are S.O. L.
so my life and ministry are not centered around supernaturalism.
however, I know a person I prayed with who was healed instantly of a congenital neck problem that 18 years of doctors and prayers and churches had never helped. she never had neck pain again. you think she would be a devout lover of god but not so. She believes God healed her but she is angry at God for other reasons.
I believe God is a God of immense possibility. that god makes possible things that were not possible. I don't think god contravenes creation to do this but works through creation to do this.
I believe jesus healed people....by that I mean that people who felt horrible and ill and sick and where literally sick were made literally well. if science can somehow explain what he did I don't really care. because the point is that when God's Love is incarnate...amazing possibilities abound.
I believe that prayer can change things. But I think trusting in prayer rather than the gospel story and the call to live it out fully with justice and mercy for all is the status quo among much of the supernaturalists.
i think a lot of charismatics need to trust in their faith and prayer less and get off their asses. and a lot of liberals need to rediscover an active and powerful god.
HEALING
I not only believe this to be true I have experienced healing and been involved in healing processes. Dr. Bruce Epperly's work and writing on the subject is great and I highly recommend his books on the subject. As the leader of our church intercessory prayer email group, I have heard great stories on the different ways God does heal through us by touch and prayer as well as medical ways. As people are touched the energy flows from our bodies into theirs just as it did when Jesus touched. Writers of the bible share with us the workings of the Holy Spirit. We do not know why some are healed and some are not but it is still true that healing does take place. There are true stories from many medical doctors of their witness to God's healing and from hospital chaplains that use the healing touch and prayer to assist in various types of healing. They witness it first hand. In two situations with my children they were prevented from being hurt and there was no other explanation that it was God who was responsible. Again I say Yes healing is not just a thing we read about in the bible it is up and going NOW!!!