Charismatic Healers: Embodied Practices in US and Singaporean Megachurches

Abstract

The chapter discusses Charismatic healing as embodied practice, which involves the acting and sensing body of practitioners in administering and receiving healing prayer. The chapter introduces central theological conceptions and three sets of practices common across the broad variety of religious actors and practices involved in divine healing: 1) prayer and the laying on of hands; 2) spoken declarations and positive confessions, and 3) taking bread and wine in Holy Communion. The last section of the chapter discusses the relation between divine healing and contemporary medicine. The analysis is partly based on fieldwork observations at Lakewood Church, USA, and New Creation Church, Singapore. Healing plays a central role in both nondenominational Charismatic megachurches, which stand in the tradition of the 20th century healing ministries of Oral Roberts (1918–2009) and the ‘Word of Faith’ theology of Kenneth Hagin (1917-2003). The historical examples from Roberts’ healing events and Hagin’s teachings combined with recent examples from Lakewood Church and New Creation Church demonstrate the variety of practices and understandings referred to as ‘Charismatic healing’ in this chapter.