Bruce Epperly calls Healing Marks a "very personal book" as it comes from over thirty years of experiencing the healing stories of Jesus. From his early years as a young college professor, he sought to make sense of the growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine. For seventeen years, Bruce was a chaplain and professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and was among the first to teach courses on spirituality and medicine at a major medical school.
While embracing Jesus'' healing ministry as a pastor, professor, reiki teacher, and spiritual guide, he has also wrestled with the meaning of Jesus'' healing ministry and God''s role in healing and sickness in a personal way as a pastor, friend, child, spouse, and parent, in hospital rooms, hospices, gravesides, and healing services. "I have heard testimonies about the power of God to cure illness, but I have also sat at the bedside of dying friends and congregants, who have done everything right, according to the principles of their faith traditions and philosophies - personal and intercessory prayers, positive thinking and affirmations, meditation and diet, complementary medical treatments, and visits to faith healers and energy workers - along with the best modern medicine has to offer in treatment and palliation," says Bruce.
Each chapter includes a spiritual practice related to the healing story being considered that is easily shaped for the reader''s personal and spiritual needs. Rev. Epperly also includes questions and spiritual practices for group study and spiritual formation at the end of the book. Chapter titles include Transforming Faith, Forgiveness and Healing, Healing Takes Time, Healing Broken Spirits, A Healing Lifestyle, Healing in a Pluralistic Age, and God, Why am I Sick?.