Wholeness and healing tend to be found at the margin of theological and Christian debate which
means that the discourse surrounding the topics may be fragmented and various in different groups.
The Iona Community has been involved in Divine Healing since 1938 and has developed an ethos of
openness which has absorbed other forms of discourse. These have included what are generally
thought of as 'New Age' ideas, medical practice and those associated with Rudolf Steiner.
t of as 'New Age' ideas, medical practice and those associated with Rudolf Steiner.
The Iona Community was founded by the Very Rev'd Lord MacLeod of Fuinary in 1938 to
rebuild "'the ancient monastic buildings of Iona Abbey, the Community has sought ever since the
'rebuilding of common life', bringing together work and worship, prayers and politics, the sacred
and the secular." MacLeod based all his activities on the implications of incarnational theology
which asserted the sovereignty of God over all of life. Its interest in wholeness and healing is
examined in a case study which occupies five chapters. It is then submitted to various forms of
discourse and narrative analysis which are outlined in a separate chapter on methodology. The case
study of the Iona Community depends upon a review of all the printed material which members have
produced on 'Healing and Wholeness'. Much of the material is archival and is unpublished or
come from member's responses to an open-ended questionnaire.
from member's responses to an open-ended questionnaire.
The components of the case study comprise 1) a review of the work of George MacLeod in
this field; 2) the contribution which the Iona Community has made to the liturgy of healing; 3) the
wider scene on the island as others became in alternative forms of healing; 4) an examination of
three members work and the way in which their discourse has intermingled with that represented in
3 and in the illustrative schema which is developed to the chapter on methodology; 5) a discourse
and narrative analysis of nine members' stories which were responses to an open-ended
letter/questionnaire. In the Introduction, it is argued that Incarnational Theology is the inspiration
of all the work of the Community, and that the Community's approach to healing is characterised by
openness.
The methods of analysis have four components. First, six genres of writing in theology and
medicine to illustrate how writers may traverse discourses in an eclectic and open way. The six
modes are prepositional theology, faith and theology in the community; humanistic practice,
traditional (folk) medicine and complementary therapies. Second, the concepts of cohesion and
coherence are introduced, with a view to suggesting that it is the inability of different groups to
acknowledge each others coherence which leads to major polemical differences which are not always
justified. Coherence theory depends upon the early work of Bradley, Joachim and Quine who
developed a philosophical approach to the subject. Third, Burke illustrates how different emphases
may alter our understanding of the motives behind the rhetoric of healing. Dependence is placed
upon A Grammar of Motives which asserts that motives can be illustrated by a method of
dramatism. Foucault is used to argue that his method of archaeology may be a useful tool in the
analysis of the life-work of Churchpeople.
s of the life-work of Churchpeople.
Fourth, Chapter VII examines in close detail the stones and discourse of nine respondents
from the Community. The narrative analysis depends upon Labov and Waletzky and the discourse
analysis on Parker and others. The chapter concludes by using a Belgian technique developed by
Dasetto. which uses the concept of transformational grammar to show how small units of discourse
may be transformed by the way people choose to define their concepts, in this case that of wholeness.
transformed by the way people choose to define their concepts, in this case that of wholeness.
The thesis has a theological conclusion which examines the connection between the
narrative theology of Hauerwas and the qualitative analysis of stories which are designed to illustrate
the meaning of wholeness. It is concluded that the only way in which wholeness, and to a lesser
extent healing, can be defined is through experience and praxis. In an atmosphere of openness and
a lack of demand for the miraculous, a cogent body of material has been developed by the Iona
Community and sustained for fifty years whereas other healing movements have failed because of
their single element component. The Church may learn from the openness of the Iona Community
and begin to seek to avoid condemnations based on too narrow a discourse.