deliverance

Deliverance is the act of being freed or rescued from danger, oppression, bondage, or captivity. The term is used across secular and religious contexts to describe liberation from physical threats, political oppression, or personal hardship. In everyday language, deliverance may refer to relief from illness, escape from danger, or the resolution of troubling circumstances. Etymologically, it comes from Old French delivrance, from delivrer “to deliver,” ultimately from Latin liberare, “to set free.”

In religious contexts, deliverance often refers to the intervention of a divine power to save or rescue individuals or groups. In Christian usage, deliverance ministries emphasize spiritual liberation through prayer, faith, and sometimes ritual acts aimed at freeing a person from demonic oppression or influence. Practices may include prayer sessions, exhortation, and discernment; some groups emphasize exorcism, while others focus on spiritual warfare and healing. The term is not universal across denominations and is controversial among scholars who caution against equating psychological distress with spiritual phenomena.

Biblical usage frames deliverance as God’s rescue of people from danger, enemies, or peril, seen in stories such as the Exodus and the psalms of protection. Related concepts such as redemption and liberation appear in various religious traditions, often expressed through rites, prayers, or expectations of future deliverance. In secular discourse, deliverance is used metaphorically to describe release from oppression, emancipation from slavery, or freedom from captivity.

Deliverance remains a topic of discussion balancing spiritual claims with psychological and social considerations. In contemporary discourse, the word often signifies a process toward safety, freedom, or wholeness, intersecting law, theology, psychology, and human rights.