Faith Cure: Divine Healing in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements

Hardesty, Nancy. Faith Cure: Divine Healing in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003.

Hardesty explains “this book is about faith healing – not about faith healers” (1). The Holiness movements developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, at the same time Christian Science was developing. The Pentecostal movement branched off in the early twentieth century from the Holiness movements, while Christian Science continued to grow. Hardesty’s book is about the Holiness and Pentecostal movements, but because of the similarities between these movements and Christian Science, she identifies a few significant points of comparison. Although both “saw themselves as based in the Bible, following the practice of Jesus, and accomplishing the miraculous” (4), they vehemently opposed each other and sought to distinguish themselves from each other. From Hardesty’s viewpoint, “Christian Science sees disease as rooted in incorrect thinking while Holiness people tend to see it as a physically real affliction, most often caused by sin or Satan” (4). Christian Science is often referred to as Mind Cure in distinction to Faith Cure in Holiness practices. Both groups faced difficult legal prosecution in the 1980s when children died without medical care, and the issue of childcare continues to be a mutual problem.

ISBN-10: 0801046491
ISBN-13 (Softcover): 978-0801046490