Faith healing involves the belief that trust in God’s power can cure sickness and other physical problems. Faith healing and praying for the sick presuppose a connection between physical health and spiritual well-being. Faith healing is performed mainly through prayer and by faith healers who lay hands on the ill person.
In Christianity, the doctrine of faith healing has its roots in New Testament stories of miraculous healings performed by Jesus Christ. Mark 16: 18 and 1 Corinthians 12: 9 mention believers with the gift of healing. James 5: 14-15 describe laying hands on, praying for, and putting oil on the forehead of the sick.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, some leaders of the Holiness and Pentecostal religious movements in the United States began to claim that prayer, not medicine, could heal the sick. Others did not reject medicine but believed faith healing and medicine should be used together. Some Pentecostals thought the Holy Spirit gave them the power to heal others.
The American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was among the best-known faith healers of the early 1900’s. The healing movement gained popularity after the mid-1900’s, especially because of the Pentecostal evangelist Oral Roberts. He held many tent revivals that included faith healing. At first, most people who attended healing revivals were poor and lacked the money to pay for medical care. Today, people who seek faith healing come from all social and economic classes.
Critics have charged that faith healers are frauds, and that reported cures are faked. Even faith healers acknowledge that not everyone who seeks their help experiences a cure. Some healers believe that a lack of faith on the part of the sick person may prevent healing.
Believers in faith healing differ from Christian Scientists, who claim that sickness is a mental state. Because of the interest in faith healing, many Christian churches have special services where prayers are offered for the sick. These services generally do not promise cures.
See also McPherson, Aimee Semple; Pentecostal churches; Roberts, Oral.
