The Healing Power of Prayer: The Surprising Connection between Prayer and Your Health [Paperback]

Chester L. Tolson (Author), Harold G. Koenig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Prayer can heal you. It's not just hype or hope or a spiritual cliché. Recent medical and psychological studies claim that prayer can relieve stress, improve attitudes, and mend bodies. Prayer generates peace, power, and health--a triple preventative that guards against anxiety and disease. It's a simple act that heals. According to Chet Tolson and Harold Koenig, prayer helps people function at their best when life serves them the worst. Even on good days, it enhances the mind-body-soul connection. Now available in trade paperback, The Healing Power of Prayer explains the nature of prayer, what happens when we pray, the restorative benefits of prayer, how to organize prayer, and much more. The authors' facts and insights will encourage believers to increase, the fainthearted to revive, and skeptics to begin a life of prayer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At times this book, co-written by a pastor and a physician, seems like two separate treatises. The first third convincingly lays out evidence from dozens of medical studies about the mind-body connection, while the rest is a fairly generic guide to prayer in the Christian life: "what it is, how to pray, what happens when we pray, and how to pray more effectively." However, the book's first part alone is worth the price of admission--it is filled with astonishing facts and statistics about the need for spiritual awareness in maintaining and regaining health. There is, for example, startling evidence of how stress disables the immune system, and how individuals with a strong religious orientation are statistically more likely than other patients to recover from a life-threatening illness. Prayer, according to the authors, "has the potential to produce healing along with drugs, surgery, and other therapies," and should be considered a vital component of recovery.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Bend Your Knees, Experience Healing

ìOne of the best books on prayer ever written!î-Naomi Judd

ìThis book could not be more timely . . . I recommend you read it carefully.î-Dr. Robert H. Schuller, founding pastor, The Crystal Cathedral Ministries

ìA most helpful book, offering concrete ways in which Godís healing power can be appropriated. It is sure to increase your faith and strengthen your prayer life.î-Dr. Bruce Larson, pastor emeritus, University Presbyterian Church

According to Drs. Chet Tolson and Harold Koenig, prayer can generate peace, power, and health in many people-a triple preventative that guards against anxiety and disease. Faith and prayer can positively improve your well-being and the bodyís ability to heal itself.

In The Healing Power of Prayer, Tolson and Koenig describe the nature of prayer, its restorative benefits, how to organize prayer, and much more. ìMedicine, surgery, and the other methods the doctors bring into the healing process are important,î say these medical and spiritual leaders. ìHowever, you have a responsibility and an opportunity to participate in your own healing through prayer.î

So whether you need healing or just want to stay well, you can make a difference. You can experience the healing power of prayer. Chester L. Tolson, Ph.D., has served as a senior pastor and denominational fund-raiser and is the executive director of Churches Uniting in Global Mission. He is the author of Proven Principles for Finding Funds and lives in California.

Harold G. Koenig, M.D., is associate professor of psychiatry and associate professor of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina. He is the founder and director of the Center for Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health at Duke and has written extensively in mental health, geriatrics, and religion. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801065240
• ISBN-13: 978-0801065248
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,042,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Parts, and not so good., May 21, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Healing Power of Prayer: The Surprising Connection Between Prayer and Your Health (Hardcover)

Good introduction for using prayer to manifest spiritual gifts,
but lacking in many details. This book has a good beginning, but gets too much into hard-core preaching and conversion. For a great book on manifesting through prayer, I suggest Tiffany Snow's "The Power of Divine: A Healer's Guide - Tapping into the Miracle" or Grace Abbey's "If You Can Say It, You Can Pray It," both of which break through the 'God in a Box' idea and show that certainly all true power comes from God and that He truly answers the heart-felt prayer; even if it may not be from the quote-every-scripture parishioner. Chester shows some scientific fact, as does Tiffany, but for seeing prayer as a definite force in the real world, in real lives, I would have to go with Tiffany and Grace.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Striking, November 14, 2003

By 

Abigail Staff (Edgerton, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Healing Power of Prayer: The Surprising Connection Between Prayer and Your Health (Hardcover)

Striking, informative book on the power of the love of Christ and His healing power. Recommended for believers and non-believers, physicians, families, and counselors!! A+

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Beginning, but preaches instead of teaches, November 28, 2004

By 

Nurse Betty - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Healing Power of Prayer: The Surprising Connection Between Prayer and Your Health (Hardcover)

This could be a good alternative medicine/healing prayer break-through book, but it is not. There is good information here, but not placed in a way that is mindful of the broad expanse of spiritual paths that a person may find themselves on, even on the Christian path. I have just finished a book that does seem to have all the structure of a break-through book, and treats the Christian reader with respect while addressing the alternative medicine side, so I recommend that book, The Power of Divine: A Healer's Guide - Tapping into the Miracle. There are many studies being done now showing the studies and results of prayer, and the combination of prayer and conventional medicine is now a modern fact!