Phenomenal Phenomena

What do we do with the possession and exorcism stories in the New Testament? From David Strauss to John Pilch to Todd Klutz to Richard Horsley, the call has been for a multicultural approach to understanding the stories. In this richly informed text, Vaughan engages with material from the ancient world, and with modern analogies from Africa, Asia, South America, and the Western world to argue that, however these stories are interpreted, these stories are to be taken as part of the eyewitness testimony to the activities of Jesus and his followers.

~Graham H. Twelftree, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, London School of Theology

How plausible is it historically that Jesus exorcised the possessed? To discuss this issue, Joy L. Vaughan utilizes multicultural reading involving interdisciplinary voices to consider the phenomenology of possession and exorcism throughout much of history. While, especially for Western people, possession implies beliefs of a strange and alien tradition, copious modern accounts of spirit possession experiences heard through the voices of those who have testified to their experience challenge this view. This excellent overview allows readers to reconsider their suppositions about the existence and function of evil.

~Marius Nel, Research Professor, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Drawing deeply on the anthropological evidence, Vaughan compares reports of spirit possession and exorcism across cultures to those in the gospels and Acts, demonstrating the historical evidence for the widespread nature of these phenomena. This study lends further weight to the growing realization that Western rational explanations cannot account for these phenomena and to the need for New Testament scholars to take seriously reports of spirit possession and exorcism in the Gospels if we are to understand fully the historical Jesus and his mission.

~Amanda Witmer, Adjunct in Religious Studies, University of Waterloo

Phenomenal Phenomena is an excellent compendium of scholarship and an interdisciplinary study of spirit possession in the Gospels and Acts. No other book offers such a cogent, concise, and compelling treatment of exorcism in modern biblical studies with global perspectives.

~Daniel K. Darko, Dean for Global Engagement and Professor of Biblical Studies, Taylor University

Through a global and interreligious lens she explores the presense of spirit possession and illness (chapter 4); spirit possession and violence or extraordinary strength (chapter 5); and spirit possession and vocal activity/alteration, demonic speech, and oracular activity (chapter 6). Vaughan's work invites multicultural voices to the interpretive table and challneges a quick dissmissal of NT stories of spirit possession as historical fiction.

~Laurie Brink, Catholic Theological Union, The Bible Today