FAITH HEALING, a form of "mind cure," characterized by the doctrine that pain and disease really exist, but may be neu tralized and dispelled by faith in Divine power ; Christian Science (q.v.) holds that pain is an illusion and seeks to cure the patient by instilling into him this belief. In the Christian Church the tra dition of faith healing dates from the earliest days of Christianity; upon the miracles of the New Testament follow cases of healing, first by the Apostles, then by their successors. After the 3rd century it became transformed into trust in relics, though faith cures still occur sporadically in later times. With the Reformation faith healing proper reappears among the Moravians and Wal denses, who, like the peculiar people of our own day, put their trust in prayer and anointing with oil. In the 16th century faith cures were recorded of Luther and other reformers, in the next century of the Baptists, Quakers, and other Puritan sects, and in the i8th century the faith healing of the Methodists in this coun try was paralleled by pietism in Germany. In the i9th century Prince Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst, canon of Gross wardein, was a famous healer on the continent ; the Mormons and Irvingites were prominent among English-speaking peoples ; in the last quarter of the i9th century faith healing became popular in London, and Bethshan homes were opened in 1881, and since then it has found many adherents in England.
Under faith healing in a wider sense may be included (r) the cures in the temples of Aesculapius and other deities in the ancient world ; (2) the practice of touching for the king's evil, in vogue from the i i th to the 18th century; (3) the cures of Valentine Greatrakes, the "stroker" (1629-83) ; and (4) the miracles of Lourdes and other resorts of pilgrims, including St. Winifred's well in Flintshire, Treves with its holy coat, the grave of the Jansenist F. de Paris in the i8th century, the little town of Kevelaer from 1641 onwards, the tombs of St. Louis, Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, and others.
An animistic theory of disease was held by several European faith healers. Used in this sense, faith healing is indistinguishable from much of savage leech-craft, which seeks to cure disease by expelling the evil spirit in some portion of the body. Although it is usually present, faith in the medicine man is not essential for the efficacy of the method. The same may be said of the lineal descendant of savage medicine—the magical leech-craft of Euro pean folk-lore; cures for toothache, warts, etc., act in spite of the disbelief of the sufferer ; how far incredulity on the part of the healer would result in failure is an open question.
From the psychological point of view all kinds of mind cure depend on suggestion (q.v.) . In faith healing proper powerful direct suggestions are used, while the religious atmosphere and the auto-suggestions of the patient co-operate, especially where the cures take place during a period of religious revival when large assemblies and strong emotions are found.
See A. T. Myers and F. W. H. Myers in Proc. Soc. Psychical Re search, ix. 16o-2o9, on the miracles of Lourdes, with bibliography ; A. Feilding, Faith Healing and Christian Science; 0. Stoll, Suggestion and Hypnotismus in der Volkerpsychologie; article "Greatrakes" in Dict. Nat. Biog. (N. W. T.)