At 10:51 16/02/99 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Greetings!
>
>>Fearful to start another thread with the equally elementary question: To
>what
>>extent was an equation drawn in the Middle Ages between sickness and sin?
The connexion is made in the Bible, in the epistle of St James, 5:14 ff,
Is one of you ill? Let him send for the elders of the church to pray over
him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord; the prayer offered in
faith will heal the sick man, and if he has committed sins they will be
forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one
another, that you may be healed.
Jesus himself makes the connexion in several places, eg Mark 2:5, where
Jesus says to the paralysed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven." At Mark
6:12-13 the disciples are sent one their mission, "So they set out and
proclaimed the need for repentance; they drove out many demons, and
anointed many sick people with oil and cured them" - repentance of sins,
casting out of demons and anointing the sick are seen as parts of the same
ministry.
The connexion (equation is too strong a word) is therefore not particularly
medieval, but is a fundamental aspect of the Christian faith which still
obtains today, and is acknowledged in the present-day penitential and
healing rites of the Catholic Church.
Bill.
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