ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (ANS) -- According to Newswise (www.newswise.com), Candy Gunther Brown, an associate professor in the Indiana University Bloomington Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a $150,000 grant to pursue research on divine healing practices and their involvement in globalization.

Candy Gunther Brown (Photo: Indiana University)

The story went on to say the grant comes from the Flame of Love Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. It complements a $64,500 in research funding that Indiana University has provided Brown in the past year.

Brown said in a Newswise press release the research helps provide a broader understanding of Pentecostal Christianity, which is the fastest-growing segment of Christianity in the U.S. and much of the world. According to some surveys, 70 to 80 percent of U.S. respondents believe God heals people in answer to prayer and that in many Latin American, Asian and African countries where Pentecostal growth is occurring most rapidly, as many as 80 percent of first-generation Christians attribute their conversions primarily to having received divine healing for themselves or a family member.

According to Brown, the topics of Pentecostalism, healing and globalization are "logically, not incidentally related." She stated in a press release that Pentecostalism is "more than a religious movement that happens to emphasize healing and that happens to have spread to a number of countries. Globalization characteristically heightens both the actual threat and irrational fears of disease, thereby spurring the growth of religions like Pentecostalism that are centrally concerned with healing." And religious globalization works in multiple directions: healing practices and ideas from other countries are picked up by North American Pentecostal mission groups and catch on in U.S. churches.

According the Newswise, Brown's research focuses on two divine-healing groups: Global Awakening, based in Mechanicsburg, PA.; and the International Association of Healing Rooms, based in Spokane, Wash., with more than 900 affiliates worldwide. Global Awakening, in addition to being influential with U.S. Pentecostal churches, is active in 40 countries, especially Brazil and Mozambique.

The story went on to say that Brown has traveled to Brazil twice and will visit Mozambique this summer to carry out the research, which includes using social and natural science methods of observation, interviews, surveys, and clinical studies to collect data. She also plans to address the question of whether healing practices "work," although she emphasizes the complexity of this frequently asked question, given differing ideas of what constitutes healing.

"'Miracle' is not a word that makes sense within the paradigm of scientific naturalism," she told Newswise. "The term 'healing' likewise can mean different things, and the same with 'science.' All these terms take on a life of their own. The question is how people interpret their experiences of illness and healing."

Yet Christians around the world believe Jesus demonstrated God's triumph over evil by performing miracles of healing (and exorcisms). In fact, author, Richard McBrien refers to the miracles and healings as "partial realizations of what would come about fully in the Kingdom of God."

actual story link - http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/550965/