Humanization and Health: Assays on the Alterity in Hands-On Therapies

This study represents a theoretical-philosophical essay on the practice of care by participants of therapies by laying on of hands present in our professional daily life and is based on the concept of alterity developed by Emmanuel Lévinas, evidencing the manifestation of alterity in the art of caring for others. , which represents the humanization that arises from the relationship and dialogue between the therapist and the beneficiary. In this practice of donation, dialogue is established and care is carried out, expressing the living thought of beneficence and the humanization process

JOHREI E O ESPÍRITO DA PALAVRA

O Johrei é uma prática distintiva da Igreja Messiânica Mundial do Brasil (IMMB) que se refere ao bem-estar físico, mas especialmente ao bem-estar espiritual. Entendido e praticado pelos membros da IMMB como uma forma de cura espiritual e material, o Johrei se caracteriza pela transmissão de energia espiritual por imposição de mãos e guarda, em sua elaboração conceitual, um elemento filosófico e teológico importante: a força espiritual das palavras. É sobre isso o artigo que agora apresento. Palavras-chave: Sekai Kyusei-Kyo, Johrei, Filosofia da Religião Abstract: Johrei is a distinctive Igreja Messiânica Mundial do Brasil (IMMB)'s practice, which refers to physical well-being, yet especially spiritual one. Understood and practiced by IMMB members as a form of spiritual and material healing, Johrei is characterized by the transmission of spiritual energy by laying on of hands and guarding, in its conceptual elaboration, an important philosophical and theological element: the spiritual force of speech. This is the subject of the below essay. Keywords: Sekai Kyusei-Kyo, Johrei, Philosophy of Religion

Healing in Christian Liturgy in Late Antique Egypt: Sources and Perspectives

Health and healing were of constant interest for Christian communities in late antique Egypt. Accordingly, a broad range of therapeutic rituals were on offer by the clergy, by monks, and in martyr shrines. Of all these, this paper explores prayers and gestures performed and substances consecrated in a liturgical context as well as some related practices, with a focus on the fourth and fifth centuries, from which most relevant sources hail. Besides reconstructing the rites themselves as far as the evidence allows – including intercessions for the sick, prayers for laying on of hands, and the consecration of oil (and water and bread) and the anointing of the sick in various liturgical contexts –, I also consider them as interpersonal therapeutic rituals and attempt to evaluate them through the lens of medical and anthropological placebo theories. With due attention to the methodological difficulties, I argue that the decline and transformation of liturgical healing rites after the fifth century may partially be explained with their modest ‘placebogenic potential’ compared to other rites on offer in the late antique ‘market of healing’.

The Lutheran Theology of Ordained Ministry in the Finnish Context

Martin Luther’s ordination formulary (1539) followed the early Church in its essential elements of the word, prayer, and the laying on of hands. Ordination was also strongly epicletic, including the invocation of the Holy Spirit. Although Luther did not understand ordination as a sacrament, he affirmed its effective, instrumental character. The Lutheran Reformation retained bishops, but the Augsburg Confession’s article concerning ministry did not mention episcopacy. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s ordination is by a bishop through the word, prayer, and laying on of hands. Ordination is not merely the public confirmation of vocation but an instrumental and sacramentally effective act, in which benediction confers the ministry. If the Church is Christ’s presence and the incarnate Word is the basic sacrament in Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue, is a differentiated consensus possible concerning the ministry of word and sacrament, and ordination within this context, as a means of grace indwelt by God?

The Coming of the Spirit and the Laying on of Hands

The traditional Pentecostal understanding of the events of Acts 8.4-25 typically centers upon a two-stage model for the reception of the Spirit. While this article does not seek to preclude the plausibility of such a model, it does, however, seek to take a step further by providing a culturally-sensitive analysis concerning how the coming of the Spirit, the apostolic imposition of hands (Acts 8.17), and the concept of worship in ‘spirit and truth’ (Jn 4.24) serves as a paradigm for ethnic reconciliation.

A Re-Examination of Pentateuchal Hamartiology and Atonement as a Hermeneutical Framework for Interpreting the Laying on of Hands

The ritual gesture of laying on of hands in Scripture has generated significant interest among theologians from rabbinic times until now. Still today, scholars assign various meanings to the ritual. In the second half of the 20th century, the fresh interest that put forward new meanings for this gesture came primarily through the introduction of the new sub-discipline of Ritualistics within Old Testament studies. This relatively new discipline is not founded upon premises found in biblical texts, but rather, upon those found in various secular social, philosophical sciences, and other disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, anthropology, literary criticism, and the study of religion. These disciplines often reject major presuppositions found in biblical texts, and scholarly studies based on these approaches have produced multiple proposals regarding the meaning of this gesture. Such proposals generally offer incomplete, limited insights into the biblical meaning conveyed by laying on of hands. I have sought to avoid this interpretative misstep in the context of identifying the meaning of laying on of hands by (1) adopting premises found in the biblical text, especially concerning the nature of human beings and the concepts of sin and atonement, and (2) conducting a reading of the biblical text that applies a terminological/contextual/intertextual approach. This study is divided into three sections. In the first section, I explore the concept of sin in the Pentateuch (ch. two) and establish terminology to express the nature of sin (ch. three). I utilize simple legal terminology based upon my reading of Lev 4-6. In the second section, I conduct an in-depth study of the Hebrew כִּפֶּר to establish the concept of atonement (ch. four) and critically evaluate the commonly-accepted automatic defilement hypothesis (ch. five). In the third section, I present the ritual theory created by biblical scholars that coincides with the theoretical framework that I identified in the course of this study, which assisted in achieving the main and initial goal of this study, namely, to identify the meaning of laying on of hands in cultic contexts in the Pentateuch. The resulting data of this study enables me to expose limitations and errors included in various scholarly proposals concerning the meaning of the laying on of hands.' The traditional meaning of laying on of hands in cultic contexts has been that of transfer, with various qualities transferred such as sin, guilt, authority, general human sinfulness, and others. Very often the idea of substitution is included in the meaning of the ritual. Through a fresh study of the concepts of sin and atonement, and building upon biblical premises concerning the nature of human beings, I conclude that the meaning of transfer emerges from the biblical texts more than any other, and constitutes the foundational meaning of this ritual.