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

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2.5 ConclusionThis literature review has examined <strong>the</strong> various bodies <strong>of</strong> writing, academic <strong>and</strong> popular,which discuss health, culture <strong>and</strong> religion that bear on <strong>the</strong> topic <strong>of</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong> healing. Thereis a great deal <strong>of</strong> popular religious literature advocating <strong>and</strong> describing <strong>spiritual</strong> healing,<strong>and</strong> a ra<strong>the</strong>r small academic health literature which attempts, mostly inconclusively, tomeasure <strong>the</strong> epidemiological effects <strong>of</strong> religion or healing, which was discussed in <strong>the</strong>introduction.These attempts are inconclusive because <strong>of</strong> great difficulties in actually definingoperationally what counts as <strong>the</strong> independent causal <strong>phenomena</strong>, i.e. <strong>the</strong> religious<strong>phenomena</strong> to be counted. The sociology <strong>of</strong> religion describes religion as a force insociety, while leaving <strong>the</strong> actual epistemological content <strong>of</strong> religion to <strong>the</strong>ologians.Religion tends to be presented as a kind <strong>of</strong> ideal type <strong>of</strong> ideology, ra<strong>the</strong>r than <strong>the</strong> varying<strong>practices</strong> <strong>of</strong> real people, which is what this <strong>the</strong>sis attempts to study, rooting <strong>the</strong> discussion<strong>of</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong> healing in <strong>the</strong> historical development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Christian churches especially thosehere studied. The aim <strong>of</strong> this literature review has been to examine existing resourceswhich will help us to examine <strong>the</strong> worshippers, <strong>the</strong>ir culture <strong>and</strong> how it relates to <strong>the</strong>irbelief system <strong>of</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong> healing as a possible complement to healing through modernmedical <strong>and</strong> nursing <strong>the</strong>rapies.The review illustrates that in <strong>the</strong> conventional models <strong>of</strong> health promotion, <strong>the</strong> <strong>spiritual</strong>aspects are not addressed in any depth. Equally, <strong>the</strong> popular <strong>and</strong> academic <strong>the</strong>ologicalliteratures are very inexplicit in <strong>the</strong>ir <strong>the</strong>ories <strong>of</strong> health promotion. The question arose,<strong>the</strong>refore, as to how this research could address those issues. It was decided at <strong>the</strong> outset to61

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