Mediumistic Divine Possession among Early Christians: A Response to Craig S. Keener’s “Spirit Possession as a Cross-cultural Experience”
Bulletin for Biblical Research January 1, 2016 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.2307/26371648 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
This article builds on Craig S. Keener's cross-cultural study of spirit possession, which used anthropological data to examine possession in early Jewish/Christian and modern cultures. While Keener focused on demonic and violent possession in early Christianity, the author argues his research also supports the idea that early Christians experienced divine possession, leading to inspired speech like prophecy and glossolalia. The coexistence of divine and demonic possession could create ambiguity and schisms over who was truly divinely possessed.
Study at a glance
| Design | historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Keener's anthropological research on spirit possession can be extended to show that early Christians likely experienced both demonic and divine possession, the latter producing inspired speech, which could cause ambiguity and division. |
Abstract
Craig S. Keener’s article “Spirit Possession as a Cross-cultural Experience” explores the phenomenon of invasive spirit possession in both early Jewish/Christian cultures and modern cultures. His cross-cultural approach makes use of anthropological data on spirit possession as a means to investigate the NT and Greco-Roman data on spirit possession. In this article, I take advantage of Keener’s research into anthropological resources on spirit possession. Whereas Keener’s research shows that early Christians experienced demonic and violent possession, I find that his research can easily incorporate the position that early Christians also experienced divine possession that produced inspired speech such as prophecy and glossolalia. The coexistence of divine and demonic possession could potentially be ambiguous and create schisms among different groups as to who was really divinely possessed.