Mediumistic Divine Possession among Early Christians: A Response to Craig S. Keener’s “Spirit Possession as a Cross-cultural Experience”

In early Christian and Jewish cultures, spirit possession could be either demonic (violent) or divine (inspiring prophecy and glossolalia). Drawing on anthropological data and Craig S. Keener's cross-cultural research, the author argues that both types of possession coexisted, creating ambiguity that could lead to schisms over who was genuinely divinely possessed. The article builds on Keener's findings, which focused on demonic possession, to show that divine possession also occurred among early Christians.

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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.