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Ancient Christian Magic
Other products by Meyer, Marvin
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Product Description
Traditionalists may find heretical the use of "Christian" as a modifier for "magic." But it's an apt combination for this gathering of previously untranslated curses, recipes and spells ritualistically cast by Egyptian Christians. In the Coptic language of the early Gnostics the words for "religion" and "magic" have common roots. While the texts offered here are individually intriguing (especially those about sex and healing), their cumulative effect is, as the editors note, that "they demonstrate that Christianity can take the form of a folk religion . . . making use of ritual power for all sorts of practical purposes." There is, however, something else happening here as well. The materials gathered in this book largely date from the era of the Nag Hammadi Library, which, since its 1945 discovery in Egypt, has revealed aspects of early Christianity in a manner and scope comparable to that with which the Dead Sea Scrolls have illuminated the study of ancient Judaism; as a result, this collection also deepens and broadens our knowledge of how believers in Christ lived before the "Church" evolved. Readers who made a religion bestseller of The Nag Hammadi translation, for which Smith was managing editor, will find this collection to be a valuable adjunct to that benchmark of scholarship on Christian origins.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
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Format:
Paperback
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Number of pages:
432
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Publisher:
Princeton University Press
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Language:
English
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ISBN:
0691004587
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Binding:
Glue
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Full Title:
Ancient Christian Magic
- Dimension: 232 x 154 x 25 mm
- Weight: 0.620 kg
Product ReviewsAverage Customer Review:  5 of 5 Stars!
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!], Sunday 21 September, 2003
Reviewer: Virgil Brown from White Oak, Texas, United States
If all one wants to do is decide if there was such a thing as Christian magic, this book is not for them. Instead such a person ought to read C K Barrett's _New Testament Background_. Barrett includes half a dozen sample texts along with texts which illuminate other aspects of Christian origins.
What the reader gets in this book is Coptic and Greek texts of ritual power, i.e. magic. There are spells of healing and spells of protection from harm. There are also curses. In one text a woman named Mary appeals to three archangels to "bring away" a woman by the name of Martha. Mary's appeal is rather vicious in that she seeks to have Martha suffer an ulcerous tumor or to pour forth worms. It is significant that Mary considers this "punishment" for Martha. She then appeals to "lord Jesus Christ" to dissipate any hope that Martha might have.
Personally I find magical incantations distasteful. They represent the worst in people. What can not be gained by the legitimate rules of a society are attempted to be gained by invoking the power of a supernatural being. Such selffishness would not seem to be in alignment with what Christianity proclaims.
Meyer has collected a number of Coptic texts from the early centuries of Christianity which are texts of ritual power. Since there are thousands of un-recorded Coptic texts in the Berlin Museum alone, one can not say that Meyer has a comprehensive collection. Nevertheless he has collected texts for diverse situations and events. And most helpfully, he has added numerous notes to help the reader toward understanding.
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