Abstract:

In addition to well-known old and new healing churches, such as Christian Science and the French movement Invitation to Life, many small local healing churches exist in contemporary society. In past research, I have demonstrated that the healing churches constitute a well-delimited subfield in global religions, and constructed an ideal-type of them. However, on consideration of so-called “traditional” or “primitive” societies, and consideration of healing practices in modern societies, we find spiritual healing is common to both. Thus, we may ask the question: Are the recent healing churches a resurgence of archaic healing practices? The answered depends on the application of a comparative perspective. It is concluded that the two social phenomena, healing conducted by medicine men and shamans I traditional societies and healing conducted within contemporary Wester healing churches, are cannot be equated because they are governed by two different underlying rationales. t Ease with Modernity/ Hypermodernity

Author: Régis Dericquebourg