Healing Through the Centuries: Models for Understanding

Miraculous healing is a topic that always stirs keen interest. Some people claim to have experienced it and others would like to. Some believe that it results from divine intervention; others contend it always has a psychological explanation or is merely fraudulent. Any serious investigation must take into account the diverse accounts of healing found in diverse branches of the Christian tradition from its New Testament origins to the present. However one feels about healing, it has been a mysterious but often central phenomenon in Christian experience.

As a believing scholar, Ronald A. N. Kydd steers a middle course between the uncritical enthusiasm and the rationalistic skepticism that often skew popular discussions of the topic. The six "models for understanding" that arise from his study bring clarifying order to the diversities of method, theology, and social location that have characterized healing ministries in different times and places. After an introductory survey of healing in the New Testament, Kydd traces these models through history:

1. Confrontational—as seen in the work of J. C. Blumhardt and John Wimber
2. Intercessory—as reflected in the ministry of Brother Andre and in the appearances of Mary at Medjugorje
3. Reliquarial—the place of relics in the history of healing
4. Incubational—as seen at Männedorf
5. Revelational—mirrored in the ministries of William Branham and Kathryn Kuhlman
6. Soteriological—the model best exemplified by Oral Roberts