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Heather D. Curtis

This history of evangelical faith healing in nineteenth-century America examines the nation’s shifting attitudes about sickness, suffering, and health. 

Faith in the Great Physician tells the story of how participants in the divine healing movement transformed the ways Americans coped with physical affliction and pursued bodily wellbeing. Heather D. Curtis offers critical reflection on the theological, cultural, and social forces that come into play when one questions the purpose of suffering and the possibility of healing.

Belief in divine healing ran counter to a deep-seated Christian ethic that linked physical suffering with spiritual holiness. By engaging in devotional disciplines and participating in social reform efforts, proponents of faith cure embraced a model of spiritual experience that endorsed active service, rather than passive endurance, as the proper Christian response to illness and pain.

Emphasizing the centrality of religious practices to the enterprise of divine healing, Curtis sheds light on the relationship among Christian faith, medical science, and the changing meanings of suffering and healing in American culture.

Recipient of the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History for 2007

Johns Hopkins University Press

Lived Religions

Faith in the Great Physician: Suffering and Divine Healing in American Culture, 1860–1900

Aaron K. Ketchell

“Confronts readers with the implications of a popular tourist destination founded on the values and sentiments of American evangelical Protestantism.” —Thomas S. Bremer, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Over the past century, Branson, Missouri, has attracted tens of millions of tourists. Nestled in the heart of the Ozark Mountains, it offers a rare and refreshing combination of natural beauty and family-friendly recreation—from scenic lakes and rolling hills to theme parks and variety shows. It has boasted of big-name celebrities, like Wayne Newton, Andy Williams, and Petula Clark, as well as family entertainers like Mickey Gilley, the Shanghai Magic Troupe, Jim Stafford, and Yakov Smirnoff.

But there is more to Branson’s fame than just recreation. As Aaron K. Ketchell discovers, a popular variant of Christianity underscores all Branson’s tourist attractions and fortifies every consumer success. In this lively and engaging study, Ketchell explores Branson’s unique blend of religion and recreation. He explains how the city became a mecca of conservative Christianity—a place for a “spiritual vacation”—and how, through conscious effort, its residents and businesses continuously reinforce its inextricable connection with the divine.

Ketchell combines the study of lived religion, popular culture, evangelicalism, and contemporary American history to present an accurate and honest account of a distinctly American phenomenon.

“As Ketchell brilliantly argues, Branson entrepreneurs wove Christian sentiment ‘into a fabric of nostalgia, premodern longing, and whitewashed rusticity." —Matthew Avery Sutton, The Christian Century

“At a time when Jim Wallis and other observers have forecast the end of the prominence of right-wing-religion on the U. S. political stage, this book will cause many readers to question that prediction.” —David Stricklin, The Journal of Southern History

Holy Hills of the Ozarks: Religion and Tourism in Branson, Missouri