The Healing Reawakening: Reclaiming Our Lost Inheritance

by Francis S. MacNutt

For the first three hundred years of Christian history, healing prayer was fundamental in the life of the church. It even proved the main method of converting the unbelievers of the day. Then began the long slide of healing prayer into near insignificance. Ironically, Christians themselves, by reserving healing prayer for the most "holy," were the ones who almost killed this mission so central to the gospel itself.

The mystery of how this happened is described by Francis MacNutt in this fascinating history, which includes his own personal journey. MacNutt sees this loss as tragic and shows how necessary it is for us to rediscover healing prayer and once more embrace it, according to Christ's original mandate--with amazing results! Christian leaders and anyone involved in the healing ministry must read this book.

Genres: Faith, Spirituality, Christian

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Reverend Francis S. MacNutt, O.P.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thesis: Jesus’s ministry illustrated deliverance on every level of our being.

Jesus’s basic mission is mapped out in Luke 4:18ff:
(1) Preach good news for the poor.
(2) give liberty to captives (exorcism)
(3) Give the blind new sight (spiritual and physical healing)
(4) Proclaim Jubilee

Jesus’s healings were not side issues but part of the teaching itself.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit

While I probably agree with MacNutt that baptism with the Holy Spirit often happens subsequent to regeneration, I don’t think the example of Jesus is the best one to use. In Mark 1 John the Baptist says the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is something Jesus does. So--is Jesus baptizing himself with the Holy Spirit?  

MacNutt has a fascinating section on the historical development of the sacrament of unction.  Since sacraments are always effective in the Roman Church, then we have a problem: people aren’t always physically healed when we anoint with oil.  That’s okay. They are spiritually healed. In any case, this takes place on the deathbed.

Here is another issue with "spiritual healing."  Both Protestants and Catholics say this takes place (instead of physical healing, which is what the text actually says).  How many people in your church today are spiritually healed?  How many abused people undergo spiritual healing that restores their fractured psyches.  Spiritual healing is great, but a) that isn't what you are doing and b) that isn't what the text says.

One factual mistake.  He said David Hume was a leading proponent of “Scottish Realism.”  This is wrong. The Scottish Realist school led by Thomas Reid opposed Hume.  Hume, by contrast, was an empiricist. The larger point stands, though. With a few exceptions today, no one in Protestantism, liberal or conservative, questions the undisputed dominance of David Hume.

The book ends with a neat history of the “Pentecostal Century” and how the 3rd Wave was formed.  The takeaway from the book is that the church let go of the healing ministry in various ways. Protestants simply said (without evidence or argument) that all this stuff stopped with the apostles.  Catholics accepted that healings take place today, only you probably have to go to a shrine to get it done. In both cases, though, the individual wasn’t encouraged to offer healing prayers for others.  

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a former Catholic priest, MacNutt confirmed what I knew: that Jesus shared with us his own divine power to heal the sick. What I didn't expect in this book was a succinct historical review of Church history showing how our healing gifts slowly grew diminished, not from lack of the Spirit's gifts, but from centuries of shifts in Church thinking. St. Jerome's translation of a word, John Calvin's "Cessationism"- the erroneous belief that supernatural healing ended with the death of the last apostle - and a shift from laypeople taking oil home from church for healing, to oil only being used by clergy, to healing becoming one of the sacraments in the Catholic Church, then the sacrament shifting to use only for the dying (it's now come full circle and is used for healing the sick, the aged, and the dying) in the Catholic Church. I found it fascinating to learn how, by the time of the Protestant Reformation, no one expected bodily healing to happen (sixteenth century). The rise of lay people working through the Holy Spirit's power as healing ministers has a long history since the Middle Ages when the very idea of an ordinary layperson praying for the sick disappeared because healing had become aligned with holiness and sanctity and the saints.

Healing prayer is a risk, MacNutt states, but he doesn't spend much time in this. He documents why healing almost died as a charism and how it took a long road back through many holy people and centuries of transformative work by the Holy Spirit. I learned much about the Pentecostal history regarding healing, the Enlightenment, waves of discourse on healing from Presbyterians, Anglicans Assemblies of God, Methodists. et al through the charismatic renewal mid-twentieth century.

MacNutt presents the work of healing as an essential part of Jesus' ministry. Jesus shared that power on Pentecost with everyone who chooses to believe and follow him. "Without the twin ministries of healing and deliverance, our preaching that God's Kingdom is here and that Satan's dominion is being destroyed is hollow," sums up MacNutt ."These ministries are essential to the life of any church" and balance each other.

If you believe that Jesus expects us to follow his example, if you're curious about the charisms and power and baptism of the Holy Spirit, I recommend you read this book.

[AmyLu Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciated this book because it put into context what has happened to the healing ministry from the time it was first given to Christ's disciples until modern times. The information MacNutt explained has opened my eyes and made me more determined than ever to keep pursuing everything God has for all of his followers in terms of healing ministry.

[Larada Horner-Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Francis Macnutt gives a detailed history of how the church almost lost to healing and exorcism. He does share how the charismatic renewal saved it and what the church needs to do today to keep it alive. A fascinating book.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I had a pound for every book I've read that criticises the historic church and claims their brand of the faith is the correct one, I'd be a rich woman. They usually seem misleading or biased, like this one.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to speak with Beth on the phone last night (she was making sure that I wasn’t stranded in London as the hijacked email purported. Thanks). I realized that while she said she was struggling to square MacNutt’s use of scripture, I had glossed over it. Perhaps it was because I have heard similar arguments all my life, but I found when I came to a block quote of scripture I said to myself, “ah that one” and skimmed through it.

Nothing jumped out at me as being way off. There may have been some isogesis evident in his insistence that the open-endedness of Acts made implicit that early church ministry was expected to continue (73). Was that Luke’s intention, or was it simply that he could not yet comment on Paul’s death.

Also the case he built that healing on the Sabbath was specifically a cause of his death seemed a bit of a stretch (43). Surely it was part of it, but Jesus’ conflict with the religious authorities stretched well beyond that. Still the one-sidedness of this argument doesn’t detract from the conclusion that Jesus really valued healing. That is evident in every gospel.

Overall his use of scripture seemed fair, obviously used in service of his point, but not out of context, if without the benefit of higher biblical criticism.

For me, the greatest value in MacNutt’s book is answering the question I have always had, “what happened to the Baptism in the Spirit from the time of the New testament to 1900?” It is, I think, easy for classical Pentecostals to think that they disappeared from the church completely until we came along. That has always been a sad thought to me, and indeed, if it were true, it would lead me to question the validity of our Pentecostal experience.

I appreciate how MacNutt traces both the factors that lead to minimizing the charisms, particularly healing, as well as the remnant of the saints of God who kept the memory alive.

I think he made his case powerfully with me. I fell at times, into reverie, imagining myself praying for the healing of people in my church. I saw myself setting people free from demonic oppression and addictions. It seemed just the thing our village needs.

Repeatedly in the Masters in Spiritual Formation program, I have been faced with the irony that as we study the richness of the various streams of Christianity, God is, at the same time, drawing me deeper into my own.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

my biggest problem with this book is macnutt's inaccuracies when it comes to his portrayal of a.b. simpson the founder of the christian and missionary alliance he doesn't tell you that in the book, its obvious that he got his information from another book and didn't do any serious research on the man which is a shame.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very respectful of catholic tradition yet awakens the call for the church to free people.
Dry and deep but probably necessary to walk across denominational lines.
Glad for Francis MacNutt's work in this area!

[Marie Clunan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kind of love the original title of this book: "The Nearly Perfect Crime." This is a must read for every Christian!!!!

[Jackie Doss · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most significant books I've ever read regarding our Christian faith. A must-read for all Christians.

[Carey Oster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good but did not feel I learned a ton more on top of his book Healing. Well worth the time to read though!

[Paul Van buren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. It filled in some gaps for me. I would consider it essential reading for anyone wanting a more complete understanding of Church history and our current situation.