Conclusions

Summary

This chapter argues that spirit possession in early Christian texts should be taken seriously as involving real nonhuman agents, not merely as myth or metaphor. Drawing on anthropological insights, it treats the 'spirits' as genuine entities, which raises complex questions about ontology and agency. This perspective challenges the modern assumption that only autonomous human individuals possess agency, suggesting a different understanding of possession in the early Christ movement.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This concluding chapter illustrates some of the major ways in which a critical aspect of spirit possession can emerge in texts of the early Christ movement. It does so with the help of appropriate insights drawn from anthropological literature. A starting point here is the effort to treat the “spirits” involved in cases of possession seriously and not merely as mythical and metaphorical representations, as several earlier studies have done. Such a move naturally raises a host of complex questions concerning notions of ontology and agency. After all, the latter's allocation to nonhuman entities does collide with the established modern paradigm of the autonomous human individual as the only rightful possessor of agency.