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An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

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elated to a number <strong>of</strong> factors. However few <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se definitions specifically mention<strong>spiritual</strong>ity as having a direct relationship to health. Clearly <strong>the</strong>y do not immediately relate<strong>spiritual</strong> healing to <strong>the</strong> restoration <strong>of</strong> physical order through socially organised healing<strong>practices</strong> despite <strong>the</strong> fairly transparent practice <strong>of</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong> healing by many social groups.Human beings are seen in most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> literatures reviewed as in some sense multidimensional,<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> different categories <strong>of</strong> body soul <strong>and</strong> spirit or physical, emotional<strong>and</strong> mental are reflected in <strong>the</strong> way that <strong>the</strong> popular <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> academic, <strong>the</strong> secular <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>religious literatures overtly appeal to different criteria <strong>of</strong> knowledge <strong>and</strong> authority <strong>of</strong> verydifferent audiences. Health pr<strong>of</strong>essionals, doctors, researchers <strong>and</strong> clinical writers haveattempted to present <strong>the</strong>m as separate because <strong>the</strong>ir epistemologies <strong>and</strong> ontologies canseem irreconcilable. It is almost impossible to bring religious <strong>and</strong> scientific motivationstoge<strong>the</strong>r for study. Yet (noting <strong>the</strong> presence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Christian Medical Fellowship with itswebsite http://www.cmf.org.uk/, well inside <strong>the</strong> medical camp) a study which asks, amongo<strong>the</strong>r things, what faith groups can contribute to <strong>the</strong> NHS, <strong>and</strong> how we can present <strong>the</strong>rationality <strong>of</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong> healing, must attempt just that. One model for doing this, however,is given by <strong>the</strong> work <strong>of</strong> Osterman, (1998), a university teacher <strong>of</strong> church music who is alsoa committed Christian. Her work brings toge<strong>the</strong>r serious academic study <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> physiology<strong>of</strong> human reaction to music, <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ology <strong>of</strong> worship, <strong>and</strong> academic musical <strong>the</strong>ory in anambitious inter-disciplinary endeavour which is a model for <strong>the</strong> present research. Ostermanis most relevant to chapter 9 on music but is methodologically relevant to <strong>the</strong> whole <strong>the</strong>sis.As <strong>the</strong> concepts <strong>and</strong> methods <strong>of</strong> administering <strong>spiritual</strong> healing are closely related to <strong>the</strong>culture <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> people, <strong>the</strong> researcher selected an ethnographic methodological approach tocollecting <strong>the</strong> data. This approach provided <strong>the</strong> opportunity to explore <strong>and</strong> documentaspects <strong>of</strong> healing as practised in <strong>the</strong> two churches. Having collected <strong>the</strong> data <strong>and</strong> selected22

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