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13 - Faith Healing and Modern Medicine

from Part II - The Religious Culture of American Protestantism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2022

By
Candy Gunther Brown
Edited by
Jason E. Vickers  and
Jennifer Woodruff Tait
Jason E. Vickers
Affiliation:
Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky
Jennifer Woodruff Tait
Affiliation:
Christian History Magazine
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Summary

American Protestants have expressed diverse views of how “faith” and “medicine” relate to health. Certain Protestants consider God the source of both illness and healing, while others attribute sickness to demons and wholeness to God. Some rely exclusively on either faith or medicine for healing, while others combine them. Over time, perceived tensions between faith and medicine have diminished, but not disappeared. There are numerous examples of Protestants praying in faith for healing and trusting God to heal through medical means. American Protestants have sometimes conflated rejection of medicine with “faith” and acceptance of medicine with “unbelief” – rather than following a line of logic that one may reject medicine and still lack faith, or accept medicine without wavering in faith.

Keywords

prayermiraclesanctification
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Chapter
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The Cambridge Companion to American Protestantism , pp. 241 - 259
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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