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How can charismatic believers speak about their suffering to religious peers when charismatic groups are influenced by the idea that the righteous are blessed with wellbeing and health? The author tries to understand this issue through the analysis of four testimonies given by sufferers during an evangelical worship service in Geneva, focusing on the interactions between these individuals and the group as they explained their trials in an otherwise normal worship context. From a stigmatised or discredited condition they arrived at an authoritative charismatic status, which allowed them to teach and explain the reasons for their suffering to the congregation. This status improvement was complete when the pastor, in his authoritative position, asked them to pray for the sick at the end of the service. For the first time, this study reveals the believers' performance behind the curtain of the common idea of "healing centrality" in Pentecostal theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distinction between religion and spirituality, as it is increasingly understood in the contemporary sociology of religion, has led to a reconsideration of the relation between the individual and his/her own body. In the Christian ambit, and especially in the Catholic sphere, the traditional religious attitude has always been that of emphasizing the dichotomy between soul and body, setting a hierarchy that puts the soul in a position superior to the body's, according to an ascetic approach that, particularly in the Middle Ages, foresaw the "mortification of the body". In the contemporary spiritualist perspective, body and soul are seen as profoundly united, and the previous dichotomy seems to leave room for a more serene and less conflictual connection with one's body: spirituality relates to the sacred by leaving room for (and deriving from) emotions, feelings, the physical and the sexual, and takes a holistic view of human nature. Such a shift from the religious dimension to the spiritual dimension in the relationship with one's body can be observed not only in popular culture but also within Catholicism itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the development of the popularity of religious healing in the Netherlands since 1850 and the factors that contribute to its continuation. He focuses upon three traditions: devotional healing in Roman Catholicism, charismatic healing in Pentecostalism and paranormal healing in western esotericism. From 1850 to about 1965, interest in making a pilgrimage to holy places of healing showed a strong increase, while the number of participants in faith-healing and esoteric healing remained small. Since then, this situation has been completely reversed. Starting from a mobilization approach, the author shows that this development is linked to contextual (market and demand) factors and institutional (organization and supply) factors. It is argued that the continuation of religious healing practices challenges established religious as well as medical institutions to approach patients more integrally as whole persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostalism placed miracles at the centre of its theology as a key element of its evangelization activities. Catholicism, on the other hand, has always tried to control all declarations of divine demonstrations. Miraculous appearances and recoveries have been more and more systematically subjected to slow and rigorous procedures of verification. The Pentecostals see God as an external force which manifests itself on earth to drive out the evil which invades it. All believers have the right to be free from evil, and nobody should have to accept pain meekly. But the Catholic pilgrims we studied do not share these Pentecostal convictions. God acts from inside, not by delivering them but by supporting them in their daily tests. Physical recovery is rare and not very sought after so it takes second place to spiritual recovery which is accessible to everyone. It seems to us that these two types of representation place believers in very divergent frames of mind giving rise, in one group or the other, to hopes that correspond to the group's capacity to produce miracles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]