The Healing Religions

A Specific Sub-group within the Global Field of Religion

Authors

  • Regis Dericquebourg Charles De Gaulle-Lille 3 University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v20i2.139

Keywords:

Healing religions, new religious movements

Abstract

Many religions are concerned with the problem of illness. They organize healing pilgrimages and benedictions for sick people, but the cure of sickness is not their main preoccupation. They are primarily concerned with the salvation of souls. At the other extreme, groups such as Christian Science, Antoinism (which emerged in Belgium in 1910) Invitation to Life (emerging in France in 1983), and the followers of the Christ of Montfavet (founded by a French spiritual healer in the mid-20th century) are directly concerned with the treatment of illness. Those religions refer to poverty, physical and mental difficulties, and all kinds of misfortunes. Healing religions consider that suffering is not a normal condition of humanity insofar as God provides the spiritual tools to enable health and well-being. The results of my empirical studies let me to propose an ideal-type of healing religions. Doing so, I am showing that the healing churches which are minority religious groups constitute an original unit in the social field of religions.

Author Biography

  • Regis Dericquebourg, Charles De Gaulle-Lille 3 University
    Régis Dericquebourg is a “Maître de Conferences” at the University Charles De Gaulle-Lille3 and statute members of the Group for the Studies of Religions and Secularity (laïcité) managed by Jean Paul Willaime - (Center for the National Scientific studies, Paris, France). He wrote a doctoral thesis on the Jehovah’s Witnesses and is now a specialist of this religious movement. In 1986, he began to make empirical studies on healing churches and published several book such as : Healing religions (1988), The Antoinists (1993), The Christian Science (1999), To believe and to Heal (2001). His work on the theorization of the healing churches lead him to receive an “habilitation” to supervise doctoral students (Sorbonne, 2000). He also studies the conflict between ‘cults’ and society, and religious discrimination in the world. He has published many articles in scientific journals and has contributed to many national and international conferences. [email protected]

References

Agrimi J., and C. Criscinan 1993 Charité et assistance dans la civilisation chrétienne médiévale. In Histoire de la pensée médicale en Occident, edited by Mirko Grmek, 151-74. Seuil, Paris.

Battuta, I. 1982 Voyages. Maspero [1347].

Benoist, J. 1996 Singularité du pluriel. In Soigner au pluriel, 5-16. Karthala, Paris.

Bégot, A.C. 1998 Guérison spirituelle et médecine au tournant du XIX ème et du XX ème siècle. Recherches sociologiques 2: 65-80.

Au coeur du processus thérapeutique: Les représentations de la maladie. In Points de vue sur la thérapie religieuse. In Dericquebourg (ed.) 1999: 15-28.

La question thérapeutique à l’épreuve du temps. Le cas de la Science Chrétienne et de l’Antoinisme. Ethnologie Française 4 (October–December): 601-9.

Bertrand, D. 1999 La construction du pouvoir de guérison chez les médiums cambodgiens. In Dericquebourg (ed.) 1999: 29-33.

Chapuis, J. 1996 L’identité dans le prisme de la maladie et des soins. In Soigner au pluriel (under the supervision of J. Benoist), 37-70. Karthala, Paris.

Cox, H. 1995 Le retour de Dieu. Desclée De Brouwer, Paris.

Csordas, T.J. 1997 The Sacred Self. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Davie, G. 2004 New Approaches in the Sociology of Religion: A Western Perspective. Social Compass 51(1): 73-84. doi: 10.1177/0037768604040791.

Delooz, P. 1997 Les miracles. Un défi pour la science? De Boeck et Larcier, Brussells.

Dericquebourg, R. 1988 Religions de guérison. Cerf, Paris.

L’Antoinisme. Turnhout, Brepols and Paris.

a La Christian Science. Elledici, Turin.

b La construction d’un objet de recherche: les religions de guérison. Synthèse de travaux présentés pour l’habilitation à diriger des recherches, Université Paris V, June 1999.

c La question du salut dans les religion de guérison. In Dericquebourg (ed.) 1999: 41-51.

a Croire et Guérir. Dervy, Paris.

b Mystagogie et religions de guérison, Max Weber revisité. Archives de Sciences Sociales des religions 113 (January–March): 149-58.

Comment les thérapies religieuses sont-elles plausibles? Politica Hermetica 18: 11-25.

a Religious Rituals in the Church of Scientology: Are They Really Important? Paper presented at Cessnur International Conference, 2–5 June, 2005, Palermo, Sicily.

b Les religions de guérison, résurgence d’un archaïsme dans la modernité ou élément de la modernité ? Workshop, XXVIII SISR Conference, Zagreb, 18–22 July 2005.

Dericquebourg, R. (ed.) 1999 Points de vue sur la thérapie religieuse. Cahier de la Maison de la Recherche, 23. Villeneuve d'Ascq, Université Charles De Gaulle-Lille 3.

Durkheim, E. 1994 Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuses. P.U.F., Paris, 1st ed. 1912.

Fainzang, S. 1989 Pour une anthropologie de la maladie en France. EHESS, Paris.

Freud, S. 1973 L’Avenir d’une illusion. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1st ed. 1927.

Nouvelles conférences. Introduction à la psychanalyse. Gallimard, Paris, 1st ed. 1932.

Friesen, R.H. 1994 Origins of the Spiritual Church in Botswana. In Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots, edited by C.G. Oosthuizen, M.C. Kitshoff, and S.W.D. Dube, 37-50. E.J. Brill, Leiden.

Garnoussi, N. 2005 Le developpement de nouvelles ressources de sens ‘psycho-philo-spirituelles’, dérégulation des savoirs et nouvelle offre idéologique. Social Compass 52(2): 197-210. doi: 10.1177/0037768605052602.

Geoffroy, M. 1999 Pour une typologie du Nouvel âge. Cahiers de recherche sociologique 33: 51-83.

Harman W. 1999 La férocité de la déesse-mère guérisseuse. In Dericquebourg (ed.) 1999: 67-71.

Hatch, A. 1959 Le miracle de la montagne. Fayard, Paris.

Hourmant, L. 1999 Existe-t-il une spécificité des religions de guérison en contexte japonais? In Dericquebourg (ed.) 1999: 73-82.

Judah, S. 1967 The History and Philosophy of the Metaphysical Movements in America. Westminster Press, Philadelphia.

Kakar, S. 1997 Chamans, mystiques et médecins. Seuil, Paris.

Kent, S.A. 1996 Scientology, Relationship with Easter Religious Traditions. Journal of Contemporary Religion 1: 21-36.

Laplantine, F. 1986 Anthropologie de la maladie. Payot, Paris.

Laurant, J.P. 1999 Les thérapies religieuses, ésotérisme et guérison. In Dericquebourg (ed.) 1999: 83-86.

Laurentin, R. 1974 Pentecôtisme chez les catholiques. Beauchesne, Paris.

Levy, Joseph J. 2000 Entretiens avec Jean Benoist. Entre les corps et les Dieux. Liber, Montréal.

MacGuire, M. 1982 Pentecostal Catholic: Power, Charisma, and Order in a Religious Movement. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

MacNutt, F. 1974 Healing. Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN.

The Power to Heal. Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN.

Nelson G.K. 1968 The Concept of Cult. Sociological Review 16: 351-62.

Oosthuizen, G.C. 1992 The Healer-prophet in Afro-Christian Churches. E.J. Brill, Leiden.

Pédinielli, J.L. 1987 Travail de la maladie. Psychologie médicale 19(7): 1049-52.

Possamaï, A. 2001 Not The New Age: Perenism and the Spiritual Knowledge. Australian Religion Studies Review 14(1): 82-96.

Rocchi, V. 2003 De nouvelles formes du religieux? Entre quête de bien-être et logique protestataire: le cas des groupes post-Nouvel Age en France. Social Compass 50(2): 175-89. doi: 10.1177/0037768603050002004.

Rosny, E. de 1992 L’Afrique des guérisons. Karthala, Paris.

Séguy, J. 1982 Charisme, sacerdoce, fondation: autour de Louis Grignion de Montfort. Social Compass 29(1): 5-24.

Wallis, R. 1976 The Road to Total Freedom. Heinneman, London.

Weber, M. 1965 Essai sur la théorie de la science. Plon, Paris, 1st ed. 1904.

Willaime, J.P. 2006 Religion in Ultramodernity. In Theorising Religion: Classical and Contemporary Debates, edited by James Beckford and John Wallis, 77-89, Ashgate, Aldershot.

Wilson, B. 1970 Les sectes religieuses, Paris, Hachette.

Downloads

Published

2007-10-23

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

Equinox Publishing Ltd.

How to Cite

Dericquebourg, R. (2007). The Healing Religions: A Specific Sub-group within the Global Field of Religion. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 20(2), 139-157. https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v20i2.139