Writing about nonmedical healing in religious traditions is usually fraught with skepticism from both religious and medical professionals. Anne Cooling's successful approach to the difficult subject paves a way for skeptics to find reasonable historical evidence and logic for grappling with the concept. Part I establishes a framework for the study of Christian healing. Part II provides a valuable historical overview of the earliest Christian concepts and practices of nonmedical healing. The comparison in Part III between two contemporary and divergent methods of Christian healing highlights the religious (nonmedical and nonmagical) basis for such healing works. Cooling's work on this understudied topic gives rise to essential insight on an important historical religious practice.
-Dr. Shirley Paulson Anne Cooling has brought together biblical studies, church history, and her own spirituality in this work on Christian healing. Her perspective as a Christian Scientist comes through clearly and we learn much about her tradition and its commonalities with the broader Christian movement. The connections she makes between physical and spiritual healing are especially striking.
-Professor Dr. Rebecca Prichard