Having the Spirit of Christ

Spirit possession and exorcism are central to early Christian writings, the historical Jesus, and his earliest followers. Beyond being a harmful event requiring exorcism, possession can serve positive cultural and religious functions: helping individuals and groups reflect on and reshape identity, plan moral actions, and vividly remember their past. This book examines how a sophisticated notion of spirit possession—emphasizing cultural and religious productivity and its performative nature—illuminates key early Christian texts. It explores possession's fundamental role in Paul's religious experience and his Christ groups, including its social and ethical functions. Drawing on anthropology, the book treats the "spirits" involved seriously, not merely as mythical or metaphorical representations.

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Abstract

The earliest Christian writings are filled with stories of spirit 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. This book illustrates some of the major ways in which a critical aspect of spirit possession can emerge in texts of the early Christ movement. It begins with a reading of some well-known texts in the light of a more sophisticated notion of spirit possession, which emphasizes the cultural and religious productivity inscribed in it as well as the significance of its performative nature. The book continues by looking at the fundamental role played by spirit possession in the religious experience of Paul and of his Christ groups, and the social and ethical functions of the religious experience of possession in the Pauline groups. In conclusion, when reviewing insights drawn from anthropological literature, the book attempts to treat the “spirits” involved in cases of possession seriously and not merely as mythical and metaphorical representations.