Healer: Reception of Jesus as healer during early Christianity and Today

Volume editor

Zorodzai Dube

Synopsis

This book explores the established field of healing narratives in the New Testament by focusing on the remembered tradition regarding Jesus’ healings and comparing them with those of other healers, such as Asclepius. A sub-theme to the book is to investigate the reception of Jesus as healer in various African communities. The book exposes the various healing methods employed by Jesus such as exorcism, touch and the use of spittle. Like any other healing performances that reflect the healthcare system of a given culture, Jesus’ healings were holistic: healing bodily pain, restoring households and combatting stigmatisation and marginalisation. The book demonstrates Jesus’ healing activities as “shalom” performances that seek to re-establish peace in all its social dimensions. With regard to the reception of Jesus as healer in the African context, the book elaborates on the sacrificial lamb motif and the need for restoring a relationship with God. All the contributions in the book present a unique and original perspective in understanding Jesus as healer from an African healthcare system.

Chapters

Chapter 1
Shalom practices: Theorising Jesus’ healing practices

Zorodzai Dube
Chapter 2
Therapeutic paradigms in the public ministry of Jesus

Jesse Mugambi
Chapter 3
Greco-Roman healing tradition of Asclepius vis-à-vis Jesus as the Messianic Healer in the Gospels tradition: Implications for healing ministrations in contemporary African churches

Chris U Manus
Chapter 4
Jesus as a healer in the Greco-Roman context: Implications for healing and wellness in Africa

Richard M Bariu
Chapter 5
A feminist perspective to the discourses of Jesus’ healings in contemporary Africa

Loreen Maseno
Chapter 6
Orality and memory – Jesus’ healing of the leper in Mark 1:40–45: An example of the re-enactment of Jesus’ healing ministry in contemporary African Churches

Chris U Manus
Chapter 7
From other ways of bleeding to other ways of healing: Reading Mark 5:21–34 with the marginalised

Rose Nyirimana
Chapter 8
Reading the miracles of Jesus: Exorcisms – from an African context

Elliot Tofa
Chapter 9
Yeshua, the poured politics of healing

Hlulani Mdingi