Findings from a new international study of healing prayer suggest that prayer for another person's healing just might help -- especially if the one praying is physically near the person being prayed for.
The study of "proximal intercessory prayer" for healing measured surprising improvements in vision and hearing in economically disadvantaged areas of Mozambique where eyeglasses and hearing aids are not readily available.
Pentecostals and charismatics consider proximal prayer to be particularly efficacious and emphasize the importance of physical proximity and human touch in praying effectively for healing.
The study focused on clinical effects of proximal intercessory prayer and did not attempt to explain the mechanisms by which the improvements occurred.
-- Indiana University Bloomington
Week in Religion
- On Aug. 13, 1553, Michael Servetus, a theologian who rejected the Christian idea of the Trinity, is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.
- On Aug. 15, 1248, the foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid.
- On Aug. 15, 1534, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.
Survey Says
An analysis of newly released exit poll data by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that now-President Barack Obama succeeded in attracting a larger share of the vote from some religious groups than the 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry, had received.
Among white evangelical Protestants, for example, Obama picked up 5 percentage points more support than Kerry (26 percent vs. 21 percent).
Good Book?
“Dare to Drop the Pose: Ten Things Christians Think but Are Afraid to Say” by Craig Groeschel
Why do we fake it so much? Why do we spend so much time trying to please everyone else and make so little effort trying to please God?
When Craig Groeschel asked himself those questions, he couldn’t come up with a good answer. So one day he decided to drop the act and start getting real. With that one choice, his life began to change in a big way. And yours can, too.
Craig’s passionate, funny, warts-and-all confessions and the lessons he learned will help you find you own path to authentic living and a deeper relationship with God.
-- Amazon.com
Get to Know …
Saint Maximilian Kolbe (1894–1941), was a Polish Catholic friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland.
