Western Healing Churches : Manifestations of ArchaïcProcesses or at Ease with Modernity/Hypermodernity

Résumé En Fr

In addition to well-known old and new healing churches, such as Christian Science and the French movement Invitation to Life, many small local healing churches exist in contemporary society. In past research, I have demonstrated that the healing churches constitute a well-delimited subfield in global religions, and constructed an ideal-type of them. However, on consideration of so-called "traditional" or "primitive" societies, and consideration of healing practices in modern societies, we find spiritual healing is common to both. Thus, we may ask the question: Are the recent healing churches a resurgence of archaic healing practices? The answered depends on the application of a comparative perspective. It is concluded that the two social phenomena, healing conducted by medicine men and shamans I traditional societies and healing conducted within contemporary Wester healing churches, are cannot be equated because they are governed by two different underlying rationales.

Les religions de guérison occidentales (science chrétienne, antoinisme, invitation à la vie...) telles que nous les avons typifiées sont-elles des résurgences des pratiques de guérison des sociétés archaïques ou en sont elles les équivalents dans les sociétés modernes, postmodernes ou hypermodernes ? L'auteur montre que ces deux sortes de traitements spirituels ne sont pas équivalentes et qu'elles sont sous tendues par des rationalités différentes.