Having the Spirit of Christ: Spirit Possession and Exorcism in the Early Christ Groups

by Giovanni B. Bazzana

Overview

A provocative reinterpretation of accounts of spirit possession and exorcism in early Christianity

The earliest Christian writings are filled with stories of possession and exorcism, which were crucial for the activity of the historical Jesus and for the practice of his earliest followers. Possession, besides being a harmful event that should be exorcized, can also have a positive role in many cultures. Often it helps individuals and groups to reflect on and reshape their identity, to plan their moral actions, and to remember in a most vivid way their past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300249514
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Series:	Synkrisis
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Giovanni B. Bazzana is professor of New Testament at Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of Kingdom of Bureaucracy: The Political Theology of Village Scribes in the Sayings Gospel Q and serves on the editorial board of the Harvard Theological Review.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Beelzebul Against Satan: Exorcist Subjectivity and Spirit Possession in the Representation of Jesus 24

2 A Ghost among the Tombs: Mk 5:1-20 as a Ritual of Exorcism 60

3 The Last Adam Became a Life-Giving Spirit: Christ and Pneuma in Pauline Theology 102

4 If One Does Not Have the Spirit of Christ, One Does Not Belong to Him: The Functions of Spirit Possession in the Pauline Groups 134

5 "Will They Not Say That You Are Out of Your Mind?" The Performance of Possession 167

Conclusions 206

List of Abbreviations 213

Notes 215

Bibliography 277

General Index 303

Name Index 309

Index of Ancient Sources 314

Editorial Reviews

An invitation to theologians, and perhaps especially to Pentecostal ones, to explore the manifold ways in which spirit experience shaped early Christ groups and the texts of the New Testament”—Reed Carlson, Pneuma

“A thoughtful and intelligent contribution to a subject too long ignored or explained away by modern rationalistic approaches.”—Donald Senior, Bible Today

“This is perhaps the first, and certainly the most serious, work to take in earnest the fact that spirit possession and control of spirits are broadly attested cross-culturally, and should not be sidelined as peripheral and marginal features of human societies. This is a book that changes the game.”—John S. Kloppenborg, author of Christ’s Associations

“In this insightful and convincing book, Giovanni Bazzana skillfully treats the fascinating topic of spirit possession in earliest Christianity. His sure touch will make this the go-to volume on the topic.”—Lawrence M. Wills, author of Not God's People: Insiders and Outsiders in the Biblical World
 

“Engaging contemporary anthropological theories, Bazzana focuses on the gospels and Paul’s letters, placing them with precision among a host of ancient texts. This book helps readers to rethink the worldview of the earliest Christ-followers, whose practices of spirit possession may have produced ideas about the past and about subjectivity that we haven’t yet comprehended.”—Laura Salah Nasrallah, author of Archaeology and the Letters of Paul

"Brilliant, sophisticated, and cutting-edge, this paradigm-breaking work uses the anthropology of spirit possession, combined with meticulous textual analysis, to solve some notorious interpretive cruxes in the New Testament. Bazzana completely transforms and illuminates our understanding of the first followers of Jesus."—William Arnal, University of Regina
 

“Bazzana challenges readers to take exorcisms and possessions seriously as crucial, embodied, and practical features of Jesus’s and the Christ groups’ historical activity.”—Jennifer Knust, Duke University
 

From the Publisher