ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the topic of healing and explores the many different and complex ways in which it is addressed through various alternative religions. The theme is included not only because healing is apparently a preoccupation with current expressions of religiosity, but because it is often interpreted in a proactive way and links to the broader yet interconnected areas of life enhancement, human potential, and the attempt to construct the capacity for spiritual enrichment. Today, many Christian groups throughout the world have come to endorse the importance of the healing ministry, albeit in an enormous diversity of techniques. Nonetheless, some have made the theme of healing central to their beliefs and practices. Two examples considered here are Christian Science, with its origins in the nineteenth-century, and the more recent neo-Pentecostal movement. Today, the attractions of health and healing offer a great deal to the spiritual 'seeker', whether it is in terms of the truly spiritual or much more worldly concerns.
