Religion: Healing Ministry (Contd.)

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Healing the sick was one of the spectacular achievements of Christ's missionary disciples, but today, ailing Christians are far more inclined to turn for relief to an M.D. than a D.D. More and more clergymen, including the new United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (TIME, June 16), are taking seriously the idea that prayer has something to offer the body as well as the soul. In October 1953, the Church of England appointed a 28-man commission of ministers and medical men "to consider the theological, medical, psychological and pastoral aspects of 'Divine Healing.' " Last week the report was out. Its gist: the hope and faith religion can give provide a valuable basis for recovery, but barring the rare miracle, they are no substitute for pills and scalpels.

Anxiety and fear, the commission granted, lay a man low, and therefore "many sick persons are in need of assistance which medical science in itself cannot supply," but in cases of so-called spiritual healing "there could never be established scientific evidence which would compel the conclusion that it was the spiritual content of the ministrations which had brought about the cure." In an appendix on "Christian Science and Spiritualism," the commission characterized Christian Science as "in clear conflict with the Christian Gospel," and added that "had the Church faithfully and intelligently carried out our Lord's commission to heal, Christian Science would have had no reason for existence."