Virtually all scholars agree that Jesus did one very risky thing: he exorcised demons. Exorcism was an illicit activity in the Roman world, so why would Jesus risk condemnation, arrest, and even death for the sake of the demon-possessed? Some point to his compassion. Roger Busse, a thirty-nine-year veteran of risk analysis and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, has another answer from the world in which he lives: risk assessment. People engage in risky ventures only when not doing so would...
How would ancients, particularly Jesus' enemies, have understood what he was doing in his exorcisms–the mechanisms, the techniques, and the outcomes? And why would anyone have risked associating with a man thought possessed by Beelzebul and engaged in illegal, shadowy, even disreputable activity? The result is an engaging and enlightening read of the Jesus tradition in its contemporary setting that is sure to surprise, and perhaps even delight the reader whose mind is open to new ideas and...
Paul's conflict with viscous enemies, human and otherwise, led him to employ efficacious powers, charismata (charismatic powers), and controversial and sometimes illegal practices that are only coherent when placed in context of the first century Hellenistic-Roman world. These included soul and spirit transportation, possession, and exorcisms, special techniques to repel demonic attack, as well as what was considered the darkest of black magic in the ancient world–the casting of death...
