Emily Gardiner Neal in 1975.
Source: Wheaton Archives & Special Collections

Emily Gardiner Neal was born in 1911 to a well-to-do family and reared in New York City. She was educated at a private high school for girls in New York City and the David Mannes College of Music, also in New York. She intended to become a concert violinist. Emily’s parents were openly atheistic, and what Emily knew of Christianity was from hearsay. In 1930, Emily married a Naval Academy graduate, Alvin Neal. He too was an atheist. Emily later related that during their courtship they spent many hours talking about the possibility of God’ existence – a sign of their religious longings.

After his required time in the peace-time Navy of the 1930’s, Alvin became a businessman and moved his family to Argentina and later the Netherlands West Indies. But before the beginning of World War II, the family returned to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh. At the outbreak of the War, Alvin reentered the Navy and served as an officer aboard the aircraft Carrier USS Ranger.

How she became a Christian and an anointed minister of healing prayer is an amazing story of God’s providential choreography. In 1954, her neighbor asked her to drive her to an Episcopal church for a healing service, as her own car was in repair. Emily did the favor and stayed for the service. What she saw utterly amazed her, there seemed to be several instant healings, including a large goiter disappearing. Despite what she had seen, Emily suspected some sort of fraud in the healing service and determined to carefully examine the issue of spiritual healing with all of the reporting and critical skills she had developed. Her objective was to expose as fraudulent the healing claims being made by Christian healing ministers of the era.

The diagnosis had been based on an extensive series of X rays, bronchoscopy, and sputum tests – all positive. As a result, the patient scheduled for resection of five ribs and removal of the affected lung.

Shortly before the operation was to be performed, the patient attended a healing service and claimed a cure. When returned to the hospital for final examination prior to surgery, a repetition of the previously conducted tests revealed no evidence of lung cancer. He was dismissed from the hospital, and is today in robust health. The medical explanation was, again, mistaken diagnosis.[5]

On one occasion Alvin accompanied Emily to an interview of a patient cured of cancer. Emily related what happened in the car after the interview: “I heard Alvin clear his throat and say: ‘You know, there may be something to this work you’re doing, after all. Did You notice the radiance – the strange luminosity of that man’s face? I don’t know how to explain what I felt in him. All I’m sure of is that that man been touched by something I don’t know anything about.’”[6]

Alvin came to fully support her healing ministry.

Mrs. Neal’s book, A Reporter Finds God should be considered among the top dozen works in the literature of Christian healing. Her concern for the skeptically minded of her day was manifested in her careful attention to the data of documented healings and her methodical procedures. Her story of leaving skepticism behind would be an eye opener to today’s generation of skeptics.[7] (Hint: it would make an excellent gift to a skeptical/agnostic relative or friend – readily available at used book sites).

A Reporter Finds God was immensely successful, it was reprinted at least 15 times by 1965. After its launch Emily decided to learn more about Christianity, not just the healing ministry. She entered seminary and completed a degree in theology. Mrs. Neal then attended the Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute and was permitted to take courses open only to clergy, such as pastoral counseling. In fact, she became an effective and active Christian counselor for the rest of her life.

Shortly afterward, Mrs. Neal was invited to her first healing mission in Wisconsin. There she was asked to participate in the laying on of hands. It was the first time for her. Her respect for the Church’s authority prompted her to phone Bishop Pardue, her bishop in Philadelphia, to ask what to do – he gave her permission to do so, and this began her personal healing ministry.

In 1957 the editor of Prentice Hall asked her to write her second book, and the result was God Can Heal You Now, which came out in 1958.[9] Mrs. Neal’s orthodoxy and healing anointing was widely recognized and requests to speak and to lead healing missions poured in. This served to distance her from her career as a successful magazine writer. She tried to resist the pull away from being a reporter which she enjoyed doing and had done so well. But the love of the Lord drew her to His work. The Lord Is Our Healer [10] was published in 1961 and her recognition as an outstanding author and speaker of the healing ministry continued to grow.

Along with three bishops, three priests, and two physicians she served on the Joint Commission on the Ministry of Healing appointed at the 1961 General Convention of the Episcopal Church to study the Church’s ministry of healing. The Commission’s report, which strongly affirmed the reality and need of the Church’s healing mission, was submitted to the General Convention of 1964, was unanimously approved by both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. This proved to be a boost to the prestige and acceptability of the healing ministry among Episcopal clergymen. Of course, the report was no guarantee that the liberal-Sadducaical clergymen, of which there were many in the Episcopal Church, would accept or act upon the report. As it turned out, the Episcopal Church continued to be a denomination where many of its churches had no healing ministry at all and mostly continued their journey to destructive liberal theologies.

In 1966, she was asked by The Rev. Dr. John Baiz to lead weekly healing services and counsel at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh. This she did for ten years, along with traveling widely on missions throughout the United States and abroad and continuing to write books about healing prayer. Mrs. Neal’s theology has many parallels with the that of Mrs. Agnes Sanford, and much influenced by her work. For instance, Emily practiced inner healing prayer in her counseling ministry. Mrs. Neal also followed Mrs. Sanford in appreciating the value of sacramental confession in healing. Also, like Mrs. Sanford, Mrs. Neal welcomed the charismatic renewal and its boost to the healing ministry, but like her mentor expressed reservations about its sometimes over-exuberant manifestations.[11]

The works of these two women overlapped and might be classed among the first generation of orthodox Christian works on healing that were readily available to the public. True, the whole generation Anglican/Episcopal clergymen and women such as Pearcy Dearmer and Ethel Banks had done great work, as did the multiple Pentecostal healers from the 1900s on. But they published in the era before WWII, when most American cities did not have even a single bookstore, and books had to be ordered by mail, thus their works were limited in circulation. But in the post-War era, bookstores and the paperback industry exploded and the book of Mrs. Neal and Mrs. Sanford were able to reach mass audiences.[12]

Mrs. Neal moved in 1976 to Cincinnati, where she lived on the grounds of the Convent of the Transfiguration, an Episcopal community of nuns. She was ordained a deacon in January 1978. In Cincinnati, she served on the staff of St. Thomas Episcopal Church as Deacon, leading weekly healing services and counseling. At the Convent she also functioned as deacon and led a monthly healing service and counseled weekly. In 1987, the Episcopal Healing Ministry Foundation was formed. This allowed Mrs. Neal and several of her Episcopal friends to specifically carry out the work of training and equipping Episcopalians in the healing ministry. She served as its president until her death on September 23, 1989.

PR

This chapter is an excerpt from William De Arteaga, Anglican Healing Awakenings: Saints, Heroes, and Villains (Christos Publishing, 2024). Used with permission.

Notes

[1] Emily Gardiner Neal, A Reporter Finds God Through Spiritual Healing (New York Morehouse-Barlow,1956). To date there has been no book length biography of Mrs. Gardiner Neal. I have depended for biographical information on two sources, Anne Cassel’s brief article in Sharing, “Emily Gardiner Neal’s Story,” (Dec. 1989) 18-22, and the biographical fact sheet found at the archives of Wheaton College, “Emily Gardiner Neal.” https://archives.wheaton.edu/repositories/5/resources/1019 Sourced 1/10/2024.

[2] Mrs. Neal’s numerous books are readily available on Amazon and on online used book sites such as abebooks.com. A very useful anthology of her Christian writings is Emily Gardiner Neal, Anne Cassel, ed. The Reluctant Healer: One Woman’s Journey of Faith (Colorado Springs: Shaw, 1992).

[3] William James, Varieties of Religious Experiences (New York: Modern Library, 1902).

[4] See my discussion of this in my work, Agnes Sanford and Her Companions, Chapter 23.

[5] Neal, A Reporter, 37.

[6] Emily Gardiner Neal, In the Midst of Life (New York: Hawthorn, 1963). 23.

[7] See for instance “Forward to a skeptic,” in: Emily Gadiner Neal, Where There is Smoke; The Mystery of Christian Healing (NY: Morehouse-Barlow, 1967) 5-14.

[8] I have written extensively on the pivotal importance of Mrs. Sanford and her writings. See The Pneuma Review articles which summarize my work on her. “Agnes Sanford, Apostle of Healing,” The Pneuma Review, Posted June 15, 2016. http://pneumareview.com/agnes-sanford-apostle-of-healing-and-first-theologian-of-the-charismatic-renewal/

[9] Emily Gardiner Neal, God Can Heal You Now (Englewood-Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1958).

[10] Emily Gardiner Neal, The Lord is Our Healer (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1961).

[11] Neal, Our Healer, 39.

[12] WWII changed that through the massive publication of quality books as cheap paperbacks for the GI’s and created a large reading public. Applebaum, Yoni. “Publishers Gave Away 122,951,031 Books During World War II” The Atlantic, September 10, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/publishers-gave-away-122951031-books-during-world-war-ii/379893/

Robert Banks’ ministry experience includes being a professor and an author, he has also lectured at seminaries in various Asian countries (biographical information on the back cover). This book is Volume 3 in the APTS Press Occasional Papers Series (page v). The text is an expanded development of the lectures that the author gave when he presented the William Menzies Annual Lectures at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in 2021 (page vii). In writing this current volume Banks drew from some of his earlier writings and research (page vii-viii).

As the title of the book indicates its focus is the apostle Paul, in particular, the versatility of the apostle is noted. After the front matter, which includes the Publisher’s Preface, Acknowledgements, a brief entry titled “Paul’s Versatility” by James Stalker D. D., and an Introduction (“Specialist or Generalist?”), the book is composed of 3 parts and a conclusion. Part 1 (pages 5-37) focuses on Paul as an “Artisan Missioner,” Part 2 (pages 39-72) looks at Paul as a “Community Developer.” Part 3 (pages 73-102) is given to a consideration of Paul as a “Pastoral Educator.” Each of these parts is composed of two chapters, the book closes with the Conclusion (pages 103-108).

Part 1, “Artisan Missioner,” consists of Chapters 1 and 2. In these chapters Banks gives attention to what Paul is perhaps best known for: his missionary activities. In Chapter 1, “Cross-Cultural Innovator,” the author writes about the apostle’s efforts to take the gospel to others, to those who had not previously heard, including the Gentiles (pages 11, 7-9). As he pursued this ministry Paul traveled long distances (pages 8-9). Banks points out that Paul’s life and experiences uniquely qualified him for working with different kinds of people (pages 12-13). While he engaged in his Christian ministry, he was not a full-time missionary in our contemporary understanding of the term (page 10). The apostle was not content to just evangelize, Banks notes that he also labored to establish communities of faith, churches (page 9). He gives some attention to Paul’s evangelistic strategy (pages 15-17). The key text for this is Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (page 15). It is clear from this passage that the apostle could be versatile, or flexible, as he sought to lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Chapter 1 also includes brief sections on Paul’s pastoral approach (pages 17-18) and personal practice (pages 18-19).

In Chapter 2, “Flexible Response Planner,” the author gives attention to some of the guidance that the apostle received and how he responded to it. He notes that while the Holy Spirit was involved, some of Paul’s movements seem to have been influenced by circumstances and personal relationships (pages 24-27). In this regard too we see that Paul could be flexible.

Chapter 4, “Distinctive Lifestyle Exemplar,” gives attention to Paul’s dual citizenship, his citizenship on earth and in heaven (pages 55-58). It also takes a look at the apostle’s approach to making decisions about how believers should conduct themselves in this world when confronted with various issues (pages 60-62). Banks, referencing Longenecker, notes that Paul considered some issues “vital” in which case all believers should take one course of action, while others were less critical and offered some measure of freedom so that a believer could take one course of action or another (page 61).

Part 3 looks at Paul as a “Pastoral Educator.” This section is also made up of two chapters, Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 focuses on the apostle as a “Life-Shaped Theologian” (pages 75-89). This chapter basically explores the question of whether theology shapes experience or experience shapes theology (page 75). In the course of the chapter Banks points out that Paul’s experiences had a significant impact on his beliefs.

Chapter 6 gives attention to Paul as a “Learning-Oriented Teacher.” Banks notes that Paul saw a number of different venues as places for teaching and learning, he writes “For Paul, teaching and learning takes place in lecture halls and house churches, in city centers and on road trips, in workplaces and local homes” (page 92). He further notes that this learning can take place in a variety of ways, these include: stories and ideas, conversations and instruction, experience and knowledge, emotions and thoughts, imagination and information, and practice and reflection (pages 92-101).

I think there are two things that are of special note in this book. First, the author’s description of a first-century Christian worship service (page 41). In reading this the contemporary believer can easily see that there is a marked difference between what many of us experience as church today and what the apostolic churches experienced. Second, I found interesting what the author brought out about the complexities of Paul and how he navigated his Christian life and ministry. Paul was both principled and flexible and knew which matters were negotiable and which were not. He was a master at contextualization. The book truly lives up to its title, it is about The Versatility of Paul. I think that serious readers of Scripture will find much to ponder in this volume.

Reviewed by John Lathrop

USA Publisher page: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666773774/versatility-of-paul/

For a sample chapter, go to: https://www.aptspress.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Free-Sample-The-Versatality-of-Paul-2.pdf

Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle will both educate and resonate well with its intended audience. One who has heard Gordon Fee preach can hear him preaching in this book, passionately communicating the fruits of his exegesis in language that can profit nonscholars as well as academicians. As I noted in my comments to the publisher, the book is “intertextually rich and theologically provocative,” inviting readers “to rethink traditional academic constructions of Paul’s theology in light of the primary data provided more conspicuously by Paul’s own letters.” While not ignorant of wider scholarly opinions, in this book Fee plunges the reader into more immediate contact with Paul’s own words.

Fee’s extensive Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study (Hendrickson, 2007; Baker, 2013), which treats all the present work’s questions in far greater detail, is not on a level accessible to the average reader (sort of like my four-volume Acts commentary). By contrast, Jesus the Lord offers a more accessible introduction, in the way that his Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God (1996) complemented Fee’s larger academic tome on Pauline pneumatology, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (1994).

Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle is certainly accessible. The foreword also is a touching tribute from Fee’s daughter Cherith Fee Nordling, a theologian in her own right.

As an exegete who has written commentaries on 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, the Thessalonian correspondence and the Pastorals, Fee systematizes some elements of Pauline Christology only after inductive study of the biblical text. Granted, he displays unabashed theological commitments, but they are commitments ably articulated and defended, reflecting carefully considered convictions. For example, although he sees Jesus as divine, he rejects application of the title “God” to Jesus in Rom 9:5 (124n1).

Some of the convictions that he articulates are less widely shared than others. As defended in his Pastorals commentary, Fee accepts a thirteen-letter Pauline canon (albeit with a different amanuensis and thus different vocabulary in the Pastorals; cf. Jesus the Lord, 125n1). Nevertheless, Fee establishes his central case for divine Christology more than adequately from the undisputed letters. (Given their distinctive content, the Pastorals do not figure as heavily in this work as do the earlier letters in any case.) For those of us who do accept the more disputed letters as Pauline at any level, however, Fee’s treatment of ideas there, alongside those in the undisputed epistles, may prove very enlightening for interpretation.

Although a more popular work includes much less documentation than the academic work on which it is based, it can sometimes also provide a more mature synthesis of the issues, highlighting the issues that further reflection deems most central. In Jesus the Lord, Fee develops the central elements of his case clearly.

Christian History Magazine Features: Guest Editor, David Neff; Author, Grant Wacker and Fellow Historians Who Chronicle the Life of the World’s Best Known Evangelist for Christ  

Christian History Institute (CHI), a quarterly magazine series, published a special edition of Christian History – issue #111, titled: “Billy Graham – Apostle of changed lives and second chances,” originally released in 2014. Christian History magazine continues to publish informative and entertaining history, now alongside its companion website, christianhistorymagazine.org.

In this issue, #111, Christian History magazine’s guest editorial consultant, Grant Wacker, a Duke Divinity School professor and author of America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation, leads a team of distinguished historians and writers who tell the epic story of Mr. Graham’s life and career, a unique contribution to the character and spirit of the evangelical church, the nation and the world. The issue’s 10 articles, rare archive photos and intimate writing style documents the life and family of Billy Graham, who has personally shared the salvation message of Jesus Christ with more people than any other individual in history.

Guest editor, David Neff, former editor of Christianity Today, has assembled the talents and expertise of several leading historians and writers, to capture the essence of the life and times of America’s most prominent religious figure, Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ministry (BGEA). Outstanding among many central themes associated with Mr. Graham in the issue, and lasting throughout his career, is his core preaching message focused on belief in Jesus and the believer’s life, lived in faith and holiness.

In addition to Graham’s primary message of salvation in Christ, the issue’s contributors have identified and examined many of Graham’s famous milestones and associations that have helped to shape the Graham legacy. These themes include:

• The 1949 Los Angles tent revival, that garnered the attention of the newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, who urged his editor to pay attention to Graham
• Graham’s use of television and radio that positioned him in the living rooms of millions of Americans, where he introduced the values of evangelical Protestantism
• His commitment to world evangelism that took him throughout Europe, the Far East and Africa as an ambassador of Christ
• His interest and gift as a confidant to presidents, prime ministers and statesmen that made him a cultural influence in over 150 countries, 49 of which hosted his mass meetings that reached, in the aggregate, billions of listeners and millions of believers
• Graham’s marriage to Ruth Bell which inspired men, women and families to a deepened personal faith life and encouraged future family and relationship ministries
• His intellectual engagement with education leaders and students that spawned seminaries, colleges and universities, helping shape a worldwide evangelical movement and revival
• His pioneering vision for racial integration that inspired the American civil rights movement – in 1953, he shockingly removed ropes that separated his audience by color – and in association with Howard Jones, a full-time BGEA associate
• Graham’s uncompromising stand for ethics and morality, setting strict rules for his own behavior and that of ministry associates, which helped prevent moral scandal and compromise that destroyed many other ministry leaders and organizations

“No man has had more personal, one-on-one, impact for faith in Jesus Christ than Mr. Graham,” said Michael Austin, a Christian commentator and spokesperson for Christian History magazine. “He and his family are a living testimony to the faithfulness of the Biblical message he so clearly delivered from the start of his ministry. Billy Graham’s impact for good in this world is incalculable.”

How should we lead the church?

New Testament scholar Andrew D. Clarke imagines what it would be like to interview the Apostle Paul about church leadership today.

The opportunity to interview the Apostle Paul about his perceptions of church in the early twenty-first century was an opportunity not to be missed.

Interviewer: Paul, could you start by telling us some of the most striking things that you notice about churches today?

Apostle Paul: The thing that amazes me the most is to see how church buildings now have such a high profile in every town and in some of the best city centre locations.

 
Interviewer: Did you ever foresee church buildings would be so large, so permanent and so centrally located?

Apostle Paul: No – our imaginations in the first century never quite expected this. But then, nor did we expect so many centuries would pass without seeing the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly these churches are amazing testimony to centuries of significant growth, development and influence.

 
Interviewer: Would you have liked to minister in these kind of churches?

Apostle Paul: I can certainly see advantages, but then I can also see disadvantages. The biggest advantages are public profile and space. Christians travelling through a strange city can immediately identify where believers are gathering. For many years, identifying whether there was a group of believers in a city was a major challenge to me on my travels.

These church buildings also offer an amazing space for large crowds to worship and hear the gospel proclaimed. Our Lord Jesus, of course, often spoke to very large crowds of my countrymen, and we also looked forward to festival days when the whole city of Jerusalem could offer loud worship to the Lord, with many musical instruments. These new buildings must be ideal for this. When I wrote to the churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia, however, this was something I knew was not a realistic option – so I said little about it.

 
Interviewer: And the disadvantages?

Apostle Paul: Probably the same – public profile and space! As I look around today, it seems to me that ‘church’ is now identified either with a building, or with what happens in that building – at fixed times each week. It’s as if church comes down to a list of weekly activities, advertised on large notice-boards outside locked church buildings.

 
Interviewer: But, what about when church is ‘on’?

Apostle Paul: As I say, I’m excited about the opportunities for both teaching and worship, but I’m puzzled about how the mutual up-building of the body is carried out in spaces like this, and I’d be surprised if these buildings were good places to meet unbelievers.

Part 2 of 2

Discover Agnes Sanford’s important influence on the charismatic movement in this article by historian William De Arteaga.

The Healing Light

It was during her ministry at Tilton Army Hospital that Mrs. Sanford wrote her first and most successful book, The Healing Light.²⁷ The book was based on the notes she prepared for an adult education class that she gave during the war. It was written in simple language. In fact, Mrs. Sanford read the text to her nine-year-old niece and was not be satisfied until the girl could understand it.²⁸ The manuscript was finished in 1945, but it was rejected by the major trade publishers. However, several chapters were serialized in Sharing magazine, the organ for the Order of St. Luke, the Episcopal healing order. Professor Glenn Clark, founder of the CFO camps, read the chapters in Sharing and recognized their superior quality. He offered to publish it through Macalester Park, his own publishing house. It initially sold slowly, partly because Macalester Park was not listed in Books in Print, and thus had difficulty in distribution, but word of mouth soon overcame that handicap.

The Healing Light might be termed the crown work of Christian New Thought. That is, Mrs. Sanford appropriated many of the motifs, vocabulary and insights from New Thought writers, but using her biblical knowledge as filter, eliminated the unbiblical aspects of New Thought, such as its drift into radical idealism (evil is unreal, as in Christian Science) and its sub-orthodox Christology. Central to her understanding and theology was the concept that the Kingdom of God is manifest through prayer and power on earth, and is not just “other-worldly.”

Among the New Thought motifs that Mrs. Sanford appropriated was that Christian spirituality could be described as a form of scientific endeavor. This was the initial intent of Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science, and it permeated all New Thought writings. It was common to many movements and ideologies of the Nineteenth Century, such as Marxism and psychoanalysis. In Mrs. Baker’s writings and other New Thought systems of radical idealism, the end result of this quest was little more than a doctrinal mythology with an authoritative, convoluted syntax and pretentious vocabulary that aped the science of the times.

In comparison, Mrs. Sanford was far ahead of her New Thought contemporaries in understudying what true science was and was not. Mrs. Sanford saw that true science was not a new system of doctrines, but a methodology of knowledge that involved exploration, testing, verification (and failure) and humility of spirit with which to attack a problem. Although this is well understood today, it was not so clear when Mrs. Sanford wrote The Healing Light.²⁹ Mrs. Sanford wrote:

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.” The scientific attitude is the attitude of perfect meekness. It consists in an unshakable faith in the laws of nature combined with perfect humility toward those laws and a patient determination to learn them at whatever cost…Through the Same meekness those who seek God can produce results by learning to conform to his laws of faith and love.³⁰

The title of her book, The Healing Light, points to the main thesis, that the healing power of God is light energy that is accessible to all who understand its lawful application in compassion and love. Agnes speculated that the healing light was the primal light that originated at the beginning of creation, and that this light is everywhere. On the practical level, Agnes guides the reader on how to use the free gift of God’s healing light for healing. This is done by visualizing God’s light flooding the afflicted person or area of disease. To many Evangelical and cessationist-educated Christians this seemed like occult hocus-pocus. In fact, the use of light in prayer is alien to Western Christianity, but common to Eastern Orthodoxy, which has a highly evolved theology of light, especially in reference to contemplative prayer.³¹ What is innovative about Mrs. Sanford’s work it not that it urges the use of light in prayer, but its use in healing prayer.

Part 1 of 2

Introduction

In 1985 Dave Hunt, a lay cult watcher, published one of the most influential books of the 1980s, The Seduction of Christianity.¹ In that work he lambasted much of the leadership of the charismatic renewal for “seducing” the American Christianity with ideas and practices derived from occult sources. He attacked Mrs. Agnes Sanford and her writing with particular severity. Hunt claimed that her syncretistic theology was little more that witchcraft and shamanism, and should be totally rejected by the Christian community. Hunt was convinced that the ministry she pioneered, inner healing, was especially occultic and dangerous to Christians.²

In my work, Quenching the Spirit, I argued that such characterizations are destructive and untrue. Critics such as Hunt do not take into account the tragic situation within Nineteenth Century “orthodox” Christianity which labeled any form of healing prayer as cultic and heretical. The consensus orthodoxy of the era stressed the doctrine of cessationism, which also declared the gifts of the Spirit as unavailable in the current age. This theology combined with an unrecognized dependence on philosophical realism that came into both Catholicism and Protestantism from the late Middle Ages. The result was that the consensus orthodoxy of the era left no room for the role of the believer’s faith to move in healing prayer or in the gifts of the Spirit.³

An overview of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries shows a pattern in which the Holy Spirit moved the Church away from its cessationism-realism based theology. The Spirit simultaneously inspired different groups and individuals towards theologies that reincorporated the gifts of the Spirit. This allowed for a more active understanding of the role of mind, acting through faith in Christ, to activate the miraculous powers of the Kingdom of God. This was a move toward theologies based on moderate idealism, that is, that mind, with faith, can influence matter, as in healing and the miraculous, and away from theological systems based on radical realism where the Christian merely petitions that God act.⁴ A characteristic of faith-idealism is that physical evidence is of less immediate concern than the witness of the Word of God.