6. Healing

The role of Wiccan practitioners as healers surely must goad us to return to a Biblical ministry of healing and to live by principles of well being found in Scripture. All healing is grounded in the nature and character of God, for he is the Lord God who heals (Exodus 15: 26). We see in the ministry of Jesus that healing was one of his pre-eminent activities in meeting human needs and bringing about reconciliation between God and humanity. Jesus announces his ministry in proclaiming the Gospel to encompass healing (Luke 4: 16-21). The apostles likewise had a ministry of healing, and the New Testament encourages Christians to anoint people with oil and pray for the sick (James 5: 14-15).

With respect to folk remedies, energy healing and complementary therapies, the challenge for Christians is to find the work of the Spirit of God here too and to avoid the tendency to simply debunk or demonize whatever is unfamiliar. Elsewhere I have written about the way such a positive theological understanding of energy healing could be developed.