Tag Archives: early Christians

Magic in Christianity

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From Jesus to Gnosticism
Robert Conner

Magic in Christianity
From Jesus to Gnosticism
Robert Conner
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-906958-61-9
£15.00+p&p / US$25+p&p
Subjects: Religious Studies/Gnosticism/Magic.

Click HERE for the UK edition

Click HERE for USA & Elsewhere

The world of Jesus and the early Christians swarmed with prophets and exorcists, holy men and healers, who invoked angels and demons, gods and ghosts. Magic in Christianity: From Jesus to the Gnostics explores that world through the surviving texts of the first Christians and their pagan and Jewish contemporaries.

Ecstatic spirit possession, handing opponents over to Satan, sending demons into swine, striking others dead on the spot by pronouncing curses, using articles of clothing and parts of corpses to perform magical healing and exorcism, invoking ghosts and angels for protection—these are all ancient Christian practices described in the New Testament, explained in detail by early Christian writers, and preserved by Christian amulets.

Pagans and Jews accused Jesus and his followers of practicing magic and Christians accused one another of sorcery. Both pagan and early orthodox writers describe the rituals of the gnostic sects in detail, including the magical passwords required to cross through the gates of the lower heavens.

Magic in Christianity: From Jesus to the Gnostics examines evidence from the New Testament, the first Christian apologists, early apocryphal works, curse tablets and amulets to reconstruct the apocalyptic magical world of Jesus and the first Christians.

“a compelling and striking exemplar of why independent scholarship is such an important facet of the academic studies…Recommended.”
– Dale Evans, Ph.D., review of Jesus the Sorcerer, Journal for the Academic Study of Magic.

“a fascinating and thought provoking read…one of the most learned works I have had the opportunity to read in this genre.”
– Eric W. Northway, Ph.D., review of Magic in the New Testament, The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies.

 

Jesus The Sorcerer

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Robert Conner

Jesus The Sorcerer
Robert Conner
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1869928-957
£15.00+p&p / US$24.00+p&p
Subjects: Christian Magic/Religious Studies.

Click HERE for the UK edition

Click HERE for USA & Elsewhere
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The most complete summation to date of the New Testament evidence for magical practice by Jesus and the early Christians. The very notion of Jesus being a sorcerer runs so against the grain of the Western cultural myth that even non-Christians are likely to find it far-fetched or even vaguely disturbing. Nevertheless, scholars steadily accumulated evidence for magical practices in the New Testament throughout much of the 20th century. It is that ever-expanding body of knowledge that has made this book possible. This book examines the following: The nature of the earliest Christian documents, the defects of their transmission, and the evidence for the suppression of descriptions of magical acts.

The closely related problem of the New Testament accounts as historical sources.

The radically apocalyptic nature of Jesus’ message and the expectations of the early church.

The failure of the apocalypse to occur and the theological reaction to that failure.

The role of magic and mystery religion in early Christianity.

A revisiting of the story of the “beloved disciple” and what it may tell us about Jesus and suppression of evidence about his life.

 

Magic in The New Testament

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A survey and appraisal of the evidence
Robert Conner

Magic in The New Testament
A survey and appraisal of the evidence
Robert Conner
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1906958-275
£15.00+p&p / US$25.00+p&p

Click HERE for the UK edition

Click HERE for USA & Elsewhere

Early Christians were accused of practising magic by Jews, Pagans, and other Christians. Magic in the New Testament examines magical praxis common to the New Testament, the magical papyri, the Sepher Ha-Razim, the Book of Enoch, the apocryphal Acts and the pre-Nicene church fathers and surveys the professional literature on early Christian magic.

Additional topics include:

magic, family and sexuality /

the Old Testament background of early Christian magic /

the relationship between magic and apocalypticism /

veneration of relics and necromantic sorcery /

resurrection, ghost stories and polymorphism /

magic and mystery cult in early Christianity.