Download or read book Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity written by Hans-Josef Klauck and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2003-03-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many forms of magic and paganism were practiced at the time of Jesus. What were these practices, and how did the first Christians react to them?Hans-Josef Klauck, an expert in the cultic practices of the region, describes this world into which Christianity was born and relates to it the many experiences of the first Christians recorded in Acts. Peter, for example, encounters the Samaritan magician Simon; Paul meets the Jewish magician Bar-Jesus; the people in Lystra want to offer a sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas; a soothsaying slave girl is the occasion of conflict in Philippi; in Athens, Paul finds the city full of idols but also discovers an altar 'to an unknown god'; in Ephesus, some burn their books of magic formulae, while other provoke a riot in the name of Artemis.Professor Klauck provides a fascinating account of these phenomena and their significance for Christianity historically and today.Available November 2000.
Download or read book Pagan Rome and the Early Christians written by Stephen Benko and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1986-07-22 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the early Roman empire, Christians were seen by pagans as overthrowers of ancient gods and destroyers of the prevailing social order. Allegations that Christians recognized each other by secret marks, met at night and made love to one another indiscriminately, worshipped the head of an ass and the genitals of their high priests, and ate children were widely believed. In examining these charges and the Christian response to them, Benko has provided a persuasively argued and refreshing, if controversial, perspective on the confrontation of the pagan and early Christian worlds."[book cover].
Download or read book Magic in the Roman World written by Naomi Janowitz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using in-depth examples of 'magical' practice such as exorcisms, love rites, alchemy and the transformation of humans into divine beings, this lively volume demonstrates that the word 'magic' was used widely in late antique texts as part of polemics against enemies and sometimes merely as a term for other people's rituals. Naomi Janowitz shows that 'magical' activities were integral to late antique religious practice, and that they must be understood from the perspective of those who employed them.
Download or read book The Pagan Background of Early Christianity written by William Reginald Halliday and published by Health Research Books. This book was released on 1925 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1925 Contents: Preface; Introductory; Administration, Municipalities, Guilds; Communications; society and Social Ethics; Eastern and Western Elements in Graeco-Roman Civilisation; the Decline of Rationalism; Union with God and the Immortality of.
Download or read book Magic in Christianity written by Robert P. Conner and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West written by David J. Collins, S. J. and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 897 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents twenty chapters by experts in their fields, providing a thorough and interdisciplinary overview of the theory and practice of magic in the West. Its chronological scope extends from the Ancient Near East to twenty-first-century North America; its objects of analysis range from Persian curse tablets to US neo-paganism. For comparative purposes, the volume includes chapters on developments in the Jewish and Muslim worlds, evaluated not simply for what they contributed at various points to European notions of magic, but also as models of alternative development in ancient Mediterranean legacy. Similarly, the volume highlights the transformative and challenging encounters of Europeans with non-Europeans, regarding the practice of magic in both early modern colonization and more recent decolonization.
Download or read book A Kind of Magic written by Michael Labahn and published by T&T Clark. This book was released on 2007 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection explores the importance of magic within Early Christianity
Download or read book Wicca and the Christian Heritage written by Joanne Pearson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-05-03 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pearson uncovers the untold history of Wicca and analyzes the role of Christianity in its development.
Download or read book Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries written by Ramsay MacMullen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The slaughter of animals for religious feasts, the tinkling of bells to ward off evil during holy rites, the custom of dancing in religious services--these and many other pagan practices persisted in the Christian church for hundreds of years after Constantine proclaimed Christianity the one official religion of Rome. In this book, Ramsay MacMullen investigates the transition from paganism to Christianity between the fourth and eighth centuries. He reassesses the triumph of Christianity, contending that it was neither tidy nor quick, and he shows that the two religious systems were both vital during an interactive period that lasted far longer than historians have previously believed. MacMullen explores the influences of paganism and Christianity upon each other. In a rich discussion of the different strengths of the two systems, he demonstrates that pagan beliefs were not eclipsed or displaced by Christianity but persisted or were transformed. The victory of the Christian church, he explains, was one not of obliteration but of widening embrace and assimilation. This fascinating book also includes new material on the Christian persecution of pagans over the centuries through methods that ranged from fines to crucifixion; the mixture of motives in conversion; the stubbornness of pagan resistance; the difficulty of satisfying the demands and expectations of new converts; and the degree of assimilation of Christianity to paganism.
Download or read book Origins of Modern Witchcraft written by Aoumiel and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2000 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds new light on the ancient origins of religion to give Wiccans, Witches, and the Neo-Pagans a sense of where they belong in history.
Download or read book Magic in the New Testament written by Robert Conner and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 from 1927 to 2009. 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; The Question of Sources/The Holy Family/The Looming Apocalypse/The Final Confrontation/Resurrection or Ghost Story?/Magical Palestine/Jesus the Magician/A Darker Sorcery/Christian Necromancy/Cults of Possession/Spirit Versus Spirit/The Christian Mysteries/The Son of Horus/ Last Rites.
Download or read book Pagan Magic of the Northern Tradition written by Nigel Pennick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-05-21 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide to the magical history, customs, and practices of pre-Christian Northern Europe • Details the everyday magic of the Northern Tradition, including household magic, protection spells, and the significance of the days of the week • Explores direct natural magic, such as shapeshifting and soul travel, and talismanic or sigil magic, including runes and rituals to unlock the power of crafted objects • Explains how many of these customs continue to the present day In the pre-Christian societies of Northern Europe, magic was embedded in the practical skills of everyday life. Everything in Nature was ensouled with an inner spirit, as was anything made by hand. People believed in magic because it worked and because it was part of the functionality of their day-to-day lives. Many of these practical observances and customs continue to the present day as rural traditions, folk customs, household magic, and celebrations of the high and holy days of the calendar. Exploring the magical pagan traditions of the people now called Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian, Slavonic, and Baltic, Nigel Pennick examines the underlying principle of the Northern Tradition--the concept of Wyrd--and how it empowers the arts of operative magic, such as direct natural magic and talismanic or sigil magic. Through direct natural magic, individuals can shape shift, journey out of the body, or send one of their three souls (fylgia or “fetch”) ahead of them. Sigil magic involves the powers contained in objects, which can be channeled after the appropriate ritual. Runes are the most powerful sigils in the Northern Tradition and were used to ward off illness, danger, hostile magic, and malevolent spirits. Emphasizing the importance of the cycles of Nature to the tradition, Pennick explores the eightfold sun dials and the four ways the solar year is defined. He looks at the days of the week and their symbolic association with different deities as well as why particular acts are performed on certain days and what the customary lucky and unlucky days are. He also examines sacred spaces, household magic, protection spells, and the role of music in the Northern Tradition. Explaining all the traditional holidays and activities necessary to honor them, Pennick shows how anyone can participate authentically in the magic of the Northern Tradition if they take care to do things properly, with respect, and on the right day.
Download or read book Prayer Magic and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World written by Scott Noegel and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the religious systems of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, gods and demigods were neither abstract nor distant, but communicated with mankind through signs and active intervention. Men and women were thus eager to interpret, appeal to, and even control the gods and their agents. In Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, a distinguished array of scholars explores the many ways in which people in the ancient world sought to gain access to--or, in some cases, to bind or escape from--the divine powers of heaven and earth. Grounded in a variety of disciplines, including Assyriology, Classics, and early Islamic history, the fifteen essays in this volume cover a broad geographic area: Greece, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Topics include celestial divination in early Mesopotamia, the civic festivals of classical Athens, and Christian magical papyri from Coptic Egypt. Moving forward to Late Antiquity, we see how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each incorporated many aspects of ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman religion into their own prayers, rituals, and conceptions. Even if they no longer conceived of the sun, moon, and the stars as eternal or divine, Christians, Jews, and Muslims often continued to study the movements of the heavens as a map on which divine power could be read. The reader already familiar with studies of ancient religion will find in Prayer, Magic, and the Stars both old friends and new faces. Contributors include Gideon Bohak, Nicola Denzey, Jacco Dieleman, Radcliffe Edmonds, Marvin Meyer, Michael G. Morony, Ian Moyer, Francesca Rochberg, Jonathan Z. Smith, Mark S. Smith, Peter Struck, Michael Swartz, and Kasia Szpakowska. Published as part of Penn State's Magic in History series, Prayer, Magic, and the Stars appears at a time of renewed interest in divination and occult practices in the ancient world. It will interest a wide audience in the field of comparative religion as well as students of the ancient world and late antiquity.
Download or read book Paganism and Christianity in Egypt written by Philip David Scott-Moncrieff and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft written by James R. Lewis and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an overview of neo-paganism from the Goddess to magic and rituals, from history and ethics to the relationship of neo-paganism to Christianity.
Download or read book Between Pagan and Christian written by Christopher P. Jones and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the early Christians, “pagan” referred to a multitude of unbelievers: Greek and Roman devotees of the Olympian gods, and “barbarians” such as Arabs and Germans with their own array of deities. But while these groups were clearly outsiders or idolaters, who and what was pagan depended on the outlook of the observer, as Christopher Jones shows in this fresh and penetrating analysis. Treating paganism as a historical construct rather than a fixed entity, Between Pagan and Christian uncovers the ideas, rituals, and beliefs that Christians and pagans shared in Late Antiquity. While the emperor Constantine’s conversion in 312 was a momentous event in the history of Christianity, the new religion had been gradually forming in the Roman Empire for centuries, as it moved away from its Jewish origins and adapted to the dominant pagan culture. Early Christians drew on pagan practices and claimed important pagans as their harbingers—asserting that Plato, Virgil, and others had glimpsed Christian truths. At the same time, Greeks and Romans had encountered in Judaism observances and beliefs shared by Christians such as the Sabbath and the idea of a single, creator God. Polytheism was the most obvious feature separating paganism and Christianity, but pagans could be monotheists, and Christians could be accused of polytheism and branded as pagans. In the diverse religious communities of the Roman Empire, as Jones makes clear, concepts of divinity, conversion, sacrifice, and prayer were much more fluid than traditional accounts of early Christianity have led us to believe.
Download or read book Magic and Obstinacy of the Early Christians written by Kwaku Boamah and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work seeks to answer two important questions linked to the persecution and martyrdom of the early Christians from 70 - 250 AD. A major accusation of the Christians was the perception of they are magicians. The question is; what made the pagans see the Christians as such and what was the relationship between the Christian miracle and the practice of magic at the time? In answering this question, it will be necessary to contrast the activities and the stories of the Christians with the stories told about other known or perceived pagan magicians such as Apollonius and Apuleius. The second aspect of this publication looks at the obstinacy of the Christians as described in Christian martyr narratives. The focus of this aspect is to explain the link constructed in the texts between some visions that these martyrs are described to have seen and their subsequent obstinacy. The real question in this section is what was the relationship between the visions martyrs are said to have seen and their obstinate behaviors?
