| Summary: | The thesis compares the healing miracles of Jesus with the healing practices of traditional and Christian Samoa. Jesus' healings can be appreciated more within a healing environment like that of the gospels. The Samoan healing perspectives present an interesting and challenging framework in which one may recapture the significance the healing miracles served for the evangelists and also for those whom Jesus healed. Jesus' healing emphasized the holistic cure of the sick person rather than simply the physical remedy of the body. The comparison of Samoan and Jesus' healing motifs helps re-enforce the holistic healing, which includes not only physical cure but other significant healing dimensions as well. Chapter one deals with Samoa, highlighting the traditional and Christian world-views within which healing may be understood. Peoples' concept of health and sickness is associated with their view of the world. The social and religious realities influence people's concepts of causality and remedy of illness. Within the framework of these world-views, Samoan healing is understood. Chapter two is a comparison of the world-view of first century Judaism with the Samoan, in relation to evil spirits and demons and the Samoan spirits and deities. Even though both spirit-worlds were influential in the causality of illness and possessions, the nature of the spirits are not always the same. The Jewish view of spirits is dualistic whereas the traditional Samoan spirit-world tends to be complementary. Despite these differences, there is a common ground by which one may understand both systems. Chapter three compares exorcisms in the gospels with <i>aitu</i> (spirit) possessions in Samoa. Both reveal similarities not only in the nature of the phenomenon, but also its significance.
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