A Dutch Study of Remarkable Recoveries After Prayer: How to Deal with Uncertainties of Explanation

Abstract This article addresses cases of remarkable recoveries related to healing after prayer. We sought to investigate how people who experienced remarkable recoveries re-construct and give meaning to these experiences, and examine the role that epistemic frameworks available to them, play in this process. Basing ourselves on horizontal epistemology and using grounded theory, we conducted this qualitative empirical research in the Netherlands in 2016–2021. It draws on 14 in-depth interviews. These 14 cases were selected from a group of 27 cases, which were evaluated by a medical assessment t... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Bendien, Elena
Kruijthoff, Dirk J.
van der Kooi, Cornelis
Glas, Gerrit
Abma, Tineke
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Journal of Religion and Health ; volume 62, issue 3, page 1731-1755 ; ISSN 0022-4197 1573-6571
Verlag/Hrsg.: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Schlagwörter: Religious studies / General Medicine / General Nursing
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27071717
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01750-6

Abstract This article addresses cases of remarkable recoveries related to healing after prayer. We sought to investigate how people who experienced remarkable recoveries re-construct and give meaning to these experiences, and examine the role that epistemic frameworks available to them, play in this process. Basing ourselves on horizontal epistemology and using grounded theory, we conducted this qualitative empirical research in the Netherlands in 2016–2021. It draws on 14 in-depth interviews. These 14 cases were selected from a group of 27 cases, which were evaluated by a medical assessment team at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre. Each of the participants had experienced a remarkable recovery during or after prayer. The analysis of the interviews, which is based on the grounded theory approach, resulted in three overarching themes, placing possible explanations of the recoveries within (1) the medical discourse, (2) biographical discourse, and (3) a discourse of spiritual and religious transformation. Juxtaposition of these explanatory frameworks provides a way to understand better the transformative experience that underlies remarkable recoveries. Uncertainty regarding an explanation is a component of knowing and can facilitate a dialogue between various domains of knowledge.