TY - JOUR
T1 - A Dutch Study of Remarkable Recoveries After Prayer
T2 - How to Deal with Uncertainties of Explanation
AU - Bendien, Elena
AU - Kruijthoff, Dirk J.
AU - van der Kooi, Cornelis
AU - Glas, Gerrit
AU - Abma, Tineke
N1 - Funding Information: The authors of the article are most grateful to the members of the medical assessment team for their invaluable contributions to the study: C.J.J. Avezaat, MD, PhD, emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery at Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; P.C. Huijgens, emeritus Professor of Haematology; A.J.L.M. van Balkom, MD, PhD, Professor of Evidence-based Psychiatry; and M.A. Paul, MD, PhD, Thoracic Surgeon; and J.M. Zijlstra-Baalbergen, MD, PhD, Internist and Professor of Haematology, all from the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location VUmc, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - This article addresses cases of remarkable recoveries related to healing after prayer. We sought to investigate how people who experienced remarkable recoveries re-construct and give meaning to these experiences, and examine the role that epistemic frameworks available to them, play in this process. Basing ourselves on horizontal epistemology and using grounded theory, we conducted this qualitative empirical research in the Netherlands in 2016–2021. It draws on 14 in-depth interviews. These 14 cases were selected from a group of 27 cases, which were evaluated by a medical assessment team at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre. Each of the participants had experienced a remarkable recovery during or after prayer. The analysis of the interviews, which is based on the grounded theory approach, resulted in three overarching themes, placing possible explanations of the recoveries within (1) the medical discourse, (2) biographical discourse, and (3) a discourse of spiritual and religious transformation. Juxtaposition of these explanatory frameworks provides a way to understand better the transformative experience that underlies remarkable recoveries. Uncertainty regarding an explanation is a component of knowing and can facilitate a dialogue between various domains of knowledge.
AB - This article addresses cases of remarkable recoveries related to healing after prayer. We sought to investigate how people who experienced remarkable recoveries re-construct and give meaning to these experiences, and examine the role that epistemic frameworks available to them, play in this process. Basing ourselves on horizontal epistemology and using grounded theory, we conducted this qualitative empirical research in the Netherlands in 2016–2021. It draws on 14 in-depth interviews. These 14 cases were selected from a group of 27 cases, which were evaluated by a medical assessment team at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre. Each of the participants had experienced a remarkable recovery during or after prayer. The analysis of the interviews, which is based on the grounded theory approach, resulted in three overarching themes, placing possible explanations of the recoveries within (1) the medical discourse, (2) biographical discourse, and (3) a discourse of spiritual and religious transformation. Juxtaposition of these explanatory frameworks provides a way to understand better the transformative experience that underlies remarkable recoveries. Uncertainty regarding an explanation is a component of knowing and can facilitate a dialogue between various domains of knowledge.
KW - Explanatory frameworks
KW - Healing after prayer
KW - Horizontal epistemology
KW - Remarkable recoveries
KW - Uncertainty
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147350779&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01750-6
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01750-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 36738396
SN - 0022-4197
VL - 62
SP - 1731
EP - 1755
JO - Journal of Religion and Health
JF - Journal of Religion and Health
IS - 3
ER -