thumb|The prophet [[Elijah praying for the recovery of the son of the widow of Zarephath, from the Bible's Books of Kings]]
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer or other rituals that, according to adherents, can stimulate a divine presence and power. Religious belief in divine intervention does not depend on empirical evidence of an evidence-based outcome achieved via faith healing.
Claims that "a myriad of techniques" such as prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, HIV/AIDS, developmental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, and various injuries.
Many Christians interpret the Christian Bible, especially the New Testament, as teaching belief in, and the practice of, faith healing. According to a 2004 Newsweek poll, 72 percent of Americans said they believe that praying to God can cure someone, even if science says the person has an incurable disease. Unlike faith healing, advocates of spiritual healing make no attempt to seek divine intervention, instead believing in divine energy. The increased interest in alternative medicine at the end of the 20th century has given rise to a parallel interest among sociologists in the relationship of religion to health.
Faith healing can be classified as a spiritual, supernatural, or paranormal topic, and, in some cases, belief in faith healing can be classified as magical thinking. The American Cancer Society states "available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments". Similar results are found in adults.
In various belief systems
Christianity
Overview
thumb|Faith healing by [[Fernando Suarez, Philippines]]
Regarded as a Christian belief that God heals people through the power of the Holy Spirit, faith healing often involves the laying on of hands. It is also called supernatural healing, divine healing, and miracle healing, among other things. Healing in the Christian Bible is often associated with the ministry of specific individuals, including Elijah, Jesus, and Paul of Tarsus. Being healed has been described as a privilege of accepting Jesus's redemption on the cross. Pentecostal writer Wilfred Graves Jr. views the healing of the body as a physical expression of salvation. After relating a story of Jesus's exorcising an individual and healing ill individuals who approached him, the author of the book of Matthew states that the miracles were a fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 53:5.
Christian writers who believe in faith healing do not necessarily believe that an individual's faith presently brings about the desired healing. "[Y]our faith does not effect your healing now. When you are healed rests entirely on what the sovereign purposes of the Healer are," argues Larry Keefauver. Keefauver cautions against allowing enthusiasm for faith healing to stir up false hopes: "Just believing hard enough, long enough or strong enough will not strengthen you or prompt your healing. Doing mental gymnastics to 'hold on to your miracle' will not cause your healing to manifest now." Four of the seven miracles performed in the book of John that the author uses to indicate that Jesus was sent from God were acts of healing or resurrection. Jesus heals a Capernaumite official's son, heals a paralyzed man by a pool in Bethsaida, heals a man born blind, and resurrects Lazarus of Bethany.
Jesus told his followers to heal the sick and stated that signs such as healing are evidence of faith. The apostle Paul believed healing is one of the special gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that the possibility exists that certain persons may possess this gift to an extraordinarily high degree. The New Testament says that during Jesus's ministry and after his Resurrection, the apostles healed the sick and cast out demons, made lame men walk, raised the dead and performed other miracles. The apostles are described as men given supernatural powers by God, including the ability to heal. For example, in the book of Acts 3:1–10, Saint Peter is recounted healing a disabled man.
Early Christian church
Accounts or references to healing appear in the writings of many Ante-Nicene Fathers, although many of these mentions are very general and do not include specifics.
Catholicism
The Roman Catholic Church recognizes two "not mutually exclusive" kinds of healing, one justified by science and one justified by faith:
- healing by human "natural means through the practice of medicine" which emphasizes that the theological virtue of "charity demands that we not neglect natural means of healing people who are ill" and the cardinal virtue of prudence forewarns not "to employ a technique that has no scientific support (or even plausibility)".
In 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued "Instruction on prayers for healing," with specific norms regarding prayer meetings for healing,
It accepts "that there may be means of natural healing that have not yet been understood or recognized by science",
According to John Cavadini, when healing is granted, "The miracle is not primarily for the person healed, but for all people, as a sign of God's work in the ultimate healing called 'salvation', or a sign of the kingdom that is coming." Some might view their own healing as a sign they are particularly worthy or holy, while others do not deserve it. Since Catholic Christians believe the lives of canonized saints in the Church will reflect Christ's, many have come to expect healing miracles. While the popular conception of a miracle can be wide-ranging, the Catholic Church has a specific definition for the kind of miracle formally recognized in a canonization process.
According to Catholic Encyclopedia, it is often said that cures at shrines and during Christian pilgrimages are mainly due to psychotherapypartly to confident trust in Divine providence, and partly to the strong expectancy of cure that comes over suggestible persons at these times and places.
Skeptics of faith healing offer primarily two explanations for anecdotes of cures or improvements, relieving any need to appeal to the supernatural. The first is post hoc ergo propter hoc, meaning that a genuine improvement or spontaneous remission may have been experienced coincidental with but independent from anything the faith healer or patient did or said. These patients would have improved just as well even had they done nothing. The second is the placebo effect, through which a person may experience genuine pain relief and other symptomatic alleviation. In this case, the patient genuinely has been helped by the faith healer or faith-based remedy, not through any mysterious or numinous function, but by the power of their own belief that they would be healed.