Faith in the Great Physician

Suffering and Divine Healing in American Culture, 1860–1900

Heather D. Curtis (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

288 Seiten

2008
Johns Hopkins University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8018-8686-7 (ISBN)

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Faith in the Great Physician tells the story of how participants in the evangelical divine healing movement of the late nineteenth century transformed the ways Americans coped with physical affliction and pursued bodily health. Examining the politics of sickness, health, and healing during this period, Heather D. Curtis encourages critical reflection on the theological, cultural, and social forces that come into play when one questions the purpose of suffering and the possibility of healing. Curtis finds that advocates of divine healing worked to revise a deep-seated Christian ethic that linked physical suffering with spiritual holiness. By engaging in devotional disciplines and participating in social reform efforts, proponents of faith cure embraced a model of spiritual experience that endorsed active service, rather than passive endurance, as the proper Christian response to illness and pain. Emphasizing the centrality of religious practices to the enterprise of divine healing, Curtis sheds light on the relationship among Christian faith, medical science, and the changing meanings of suffering and healing in American culture.

Heather D. Curtis is an assistant professor of the history of Christianity and American religion at Tufts University.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A Thorn in the Flesh: Pain, Illness, and Religion in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America
2. Resisting Resignation: The Rise of Religious Healing in the Late Nineteenth Century
3. Acting Faith: The Devotional Ethics and Gendered Dynamics of Divine Healing
4. The Use of Means: Divine Healing as Devotional Practice
5. Houses of Healing: Sacred Space, Social Geography, and Gender in Divine Healing
6. The Lord for the Body, the Gospel for the Nations: Divine Healing and Social Reform
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	25.1.2008
Reihe/Serie	Lived Religions
Zusatzinfo	19 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	Baltimore, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	544 g
Themenwelt	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
Themenwelt	Medizin / Pharmazie ► Naturheilkunde
ISBN-10	0-8018-8686-4 / 0801886864
ISBN-13	978-0-8018-8686-7 / 9780801886867
Zustand	Neuware