Pursuing Transformation: Healing, Deliverance, and Discourses of Development among Catholics in Uganda

This article considers how Catholics in Uganda engage with and respond to charismatic healing ministries, arguing that controversies over faith healing and deliverance ministries afford a privileged glimpse into how different actors understand how the church is called to effect specific forms of transformation in individuals and the societies they inhabit. Approaches to healing are multiple and contested, with local Catholics disagreeing about which methods of dealing with affliction are acceptable. While some understand biomedical treatment and healing prayer as competing alternatives – interpreting healing prayer as a threat to development initiatives and mature Christian discipleship – others understand them as complementary avenues of addressing affliction. Close analysis of how rural Catholics approach healing highlights the diversity of practice within the Catholic tradition, and the potential for different approaches to religious transformation to cause friction within parish communities.