spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

disabilities that they suffer, they reveal the suffering power of the God who relates himself to the
weak with his own broken and humiliated body.
Healing as transfiguration
Healing (as one of the charismata of the Spirit) is closely linked with the Kingdom of God.
Moltmann also refers to Jesus’ healing ministry as an important testimony of the dawning
Kingdom of God. In this Kingdom perspective, experiences of healing “are signs of the new
creation and the rebirth of life” (1992:189). They can be considered as reminders of hope and
foretokens of eternal life. Yet at the same time, through these healings people can already
experience the restored fellowship with God by the power of the Spirit in the suffering of Christ.
The implication is that healing is to be understood as an interaction between Jesus and
expectation, between one’s faith and one’s will (1992:190). Moltmann (1992:191f) emphasizes
the connection between healing, Christ and Kingdom by saying that “the crucified God embraces
every sick life and makes it his life, so that he can communicate his own eternal life. And for that
reason the crucified One is both the source of healing and consolation in suffering”.
Moltmann’s link between healing and the Spirit as “a living energy that interpenetrates the
bodies of men and women and drives out the germs of death” (1992:190) provides a concrete
and creative interpretation of what can happen when human beings are searching for healing in
the perspective of faith. Moltmann allows the human body a prominent place within the
perspective of Christian hope. Within this eschatological frame, the human body is attributed
certain qualities that make it clear that the body is in full service of the Kingdom of God, because
the body, including all bodily senses, provides access to the experience of God and of the love
for life that comes from God. Moltmann (1992:98; 2008:350) emphasizes twice that “when I
love God, I love the beauty of bodies, the rhythm of movements, the shining of eyes, the
embraces, the scents, the sounds of all this protean creation. When I love you, my God, I want to
embrace it all, for I love you with all my senses in the creations of your love. In all the things
that encounter me, you are waiting for me”. The spirituality of the body by means of the bodily
senses is aiming to achieve the affirmation of life and the glorification of God.
According to Moltmann, the bond between Holy Spirit and human body is expressed in the
transfiguration of the body in this life. With the transfiguration of the body is meant the change
and the transit invoked by the Spirit of Christ, who is the Spirit of the resurrection of the dead.
This Spirit surrounds the embodied life with the love of God, and places life in a new light. The
Holy Spirit regenerates human life, gives new opportunities to mortal bodies, and invites man to
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