Ariane Kovac on the Deutschlandfunk podcast “Religions” on healing as a religious phenomenon

Ariane Kovac was a guest on the Deutschlandfunk podcast “Religions” on February 2, 2025. In the program, she spoke (from about minute 10) with journalist Kirsten Dietrich about healing and health in the context of Christian religions. Every Sunday, the podcast looks at what “religions do to people and what people do with religions”.

Healing as a phenomenon has always been deeply rooted in Christianity: Anointing for the sick and healing services in the Catholic and Protestant churches, for example, are well-known. In other contexts, such as in the Evangelical faith, there are also numerous ideas that preachers are able to perform miraculous healings. In the interview, Ariane Kovac was asked what, in the eyes of believers, enables individuals to heal and what the hope of healing is based on in religious and spiritual beliefs. She also showed how such practices actually take place and which patterns become apparent in comparison, which longings are addressed by the believers and what is problematic about them from a social perspective. The discussion also touched on an earlier research project in which Kovac was involved and which dealt with the question of how believing Christians and congregations deal with the situation when prayers for healing are not answered.

Ariane Kovac, research associate in the research project REDiCON - Religion, Digitality, Confessionality, conducts research at the intersection of Christianity, social media and the sociology of emotions - with a particular focus on evangelicalism in Germany and the USA. The full podcast episode is available in the Deutschlandfunk media library.

Listen now: https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/die-sehnsucht-nach-heilung-komplette-sendung-100.html