Healing among the Russian Protestants

Abstract

The article discusses the place and role of spiritual healing in doctrines and practices of Evangelical Christians whose organizations are registered in the Tyumen region. The analysis is based on author’s own field data which point to the significance of this type of healing. In the case of Evangelical Christians, cure in effect is posited as a doctrine or ideological postulate which sets them apart from other religious organizations and marks their right to independence and own internal regulations, as well as own interpretation of the soul and body of a human being as a God-made creature. The doctrine emphasizes the type of religious cure that allows for certain spiritual healing while sanctioning the use of official and even folk medicine but prohibiting the magical/mystical components of folk magic-medical practices.