Healing phenomenon in Christian culture

Christianity is a religion based on Jesus who lived in Palestine in the 1st century. The New Testament texts describing the life of Jesus convey the extraordinary events attributed to him and his apostles. The majority of these narratives are the practices involving healing various diseases, resurrection of the dead and exorcism. Christianity bases its evidence of being a true religion on the relevant events in the Gospels. Attributes such as the Messiah, Son of God and God referred to Jesus are also associated with his miraculous healing properties. Another remarkable point in Christian healing is that missionary activities have been carried out with narratives and practices related to the subject since the early periods. In the process of institutionalization in Christianity, the practice and understanding of healing continued to develop. In this context, one of the primary meanings attributed to the Christian sacraments has been healing. Other important religious healing practices in Christian culture are the exorcism ritual and practices related to holy persons which were common during the Middle Ages. In this period, religious healing methods were preferred by Christians rather than medical treatment practices. Because, it was believed that diseases and problems were caused by the original sin of humanity in Christianity for ages. In this respect, it is seen that Christianity was influenced by the cultural basin in which it emerged. Healing practices and approaches, which are at the forefront in Christianity compared to other religions, constitute the subject of our thesis. The aim of our study is to investigate how Christianity emerged, developed and spread as a healing religion in the historical process. In the study, firstly, the sources of the healing events in the Gospels are revealed. Afterwards, the healing teaching and practices of theoretical Christianity are discussed. Descriptive (qualifying) method is used to evaluate the understanding and practices of healing in Christianity. In order to determine the origins of the healing phenomenon of Christianity, the historical-comparative method is used. Finally, the obtained information is evaluated with a phenomenological approach.