Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power [Hardcover]

Marvin W. Meyer (Author), Richard Smith (Author), Neal Kelsey (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 006065578X | ISBN-13: 978-0060655785 | Publication Date: March 1994

This provocative collection of rites, spells, amulets, curses, and recipes of the early Coptic Christians documents Christianity as a living folk religion resembling other popular belief systems - something quite different from what theo-logical and doctrinal traditions have led us to believe. Like The Nag Hammadi Library, this extraordinary collection of little known incantatory texts radically alters our perception of Christianity as primarily a highly theological and orthodox tradition. These texts and illustrations show that the folk practices of the earliest Christians are quite similar to the day-to-day beliefs and rituals of spirituality that imbue indigenous primal religions and popular religion generally. Placing these previously unknown ancient texts in historical context and explaining their significance, Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith also reveal the place of healing, prayer, miracles, and magic in the Christian teaching practice. Illustrated with line drawings and photographs from the original ancient documents and containing a plethora of rituals, curses, and spells, Ancient Christian Magic is the practical and liturgical companion to the narrative and theological texts of The Nag Hammadi Library.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.

From Library Journal

The use of magic or ritual in the early practice of the Christian religion reflects its roots in folk practices and beliefs. This volume presents a sampling of English translations of early texts, dating from 100 C.E. to the 12th century, that concern private rituals done for specific purposes (e.g., to attract a woman, to cure a medical problem). Each section begins with an essay about the kinds of texts included in the section. The book is valuable it makes available the English translations of ritual texts from the early era of Christianity that show how practitioners viewed their relationship to power, demons, angels, and God. Recommended for academic collections supporting Christian religious scholarship.
- Gail Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology Lib., Alfred
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 407 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006065578X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060655785
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #890,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Abracadabra, June 11, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ancient Christian Magic (Paperback)

With so much interest in things magical (from card games to Harry Potter) and mystical (from Celtic chants to Zen monastic biographies) I have been surprised that this book is not better known, and yet it remains, despite a prestigious university press pedigree (Princeton University Press) and marketing by one of the powerhouses of publishing (HarperCollins, their HarperSanFrancisco division here) a relatively unknown text. Not perhaps coincidentally, many of the texts contained herein were, for most of Christian history, relatively unknown. Indeed, it is virtually unknown that, in many parts of Christendom, magic was not only tolerated, but expected of the priestly class; miracles, after all, often seem magical events, much to the chagrin of rational theologians who try to explain them metaphorically, symbolically, or any way other than as Houdini-esque happenings.

In particular, the Coptic Christians, who were concentrated mostly in Egypt, spreading (as all Christians were wont to do) throughout the Roman and non-Roman world from a centre not too far from Alexandria, one of the major cities of the world of the time. The Coptics never really died out, but always remained a strange Christian aberration from orthodoxy on the fringes of East and West. The texts contained in `Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power', by Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith, come from these people.

These texts contain the whole slate of magical utterances -- rites, spells, amulets, curses, recipes. The magical practices contained herein include a spell for protection against headless powers, an invocation to a thundering power to perform every wish (shades of the `Prayer of Jabez' here), an amulet to protect against the mischief of evil spirits, and even an erotic spell for a ma to obtain a male lover (lest we think that modern controversies in the church have no historical bases or parallels).

Lest we think that the magical period of Christianity was only in the remotest of history, this collection includes texts as early as the first century after the time of Jesus to the twelfth century -- more than half the span of Christian history. Almost all texts are from Egypt, centre of the Coptic and Gnostic communities.

The users of these texts, the authors contend, had the same disdain for 'magic' as traditional Christians have for 'magic' today -- magic is usually assumed to be alien, evil, something dark and probably demonic. Yet, these texts were used in much the same way, with an intention rooted in Christianity that somehow would serve to make the practice acceptable, even holy.

Within this text are 135 Coptic texts. They originated in Old Coptic, Greek, and Gnotic texts. This volume combines them in three sections.

Ritual Power in Egypt
These texts come from various sources, manuscripts held in museums all over the world, including the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, texts from Cairo, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Florence, and Oslo, and of course, the Nag Hammadi collection.

Other interesting texts in this section spells for seeking vengeance, spells for ascending through the heavens, spells to drive out demons and various amulets and prayers.

Coptic Texts of Ritual Power
Most of these texts are individual constructs; i.e., spells or curses from a particular person to a particular person or need. However, many are templates, with placeholders or blanks to be filled in later. Often these (perhaps a precursor to indulgences later) were for sale. There are spells to help a woman conceive, and spells to help a woman avoid pregnancy. There are several spells and charms to woo a woman; there are several curses directed at barreness and impotence. Life was harsh!

Coptic Handbooks of Ritual Power
This section consists of masters and collections, like the cookbook from Cairo, and the hoards, portfolios and books of spells held at other major museums. `In a world where ritual dominated the resolution of most crises in life, these handbooks seem to have been a prized component of private collections and the mainstay of temple libraries ` Many of these collections were loose-leaf collections, and sometimes short on Christian imagery. `While this neglect of Christian traditions might suggest that the handbooks' owners worked independently from the monasteries, it may also reflect the type of language and symbolism that worked in the villages beyond the monasteries.'

Unlike our sense of magic as being something devious or sneaky, in fact magic has more often intended to be useful and practical. Thus, these rituals were meant to invoke power and meaning into the lives of those using it .

Addendum
A joy of a book will have a bibliography, an index, and appendices that give further guidance. This book magically has much here to commend it. It does lack an index, which is less critical here than in many texts, but one would hope that a future edition would have one.

The appendix contains previously unpublished Coptic texts from the Beinecke Library at Yale. These are annotated but not translated, so brush up your ancient languages for this one. Thirty pages of textual notes expand the translations in the earlier sections. A good glossary is provided, which is useful for this and other Coptic and Gnostic texts. The bibliography is a gem, and one could devote years to follow-up research based on the hundreds of items contained herein.

The book is not lavishly illustrated, but it does have original drawings, a few photographic representations, and original language sections that enhance the readability. This is a book which is both scholarly and fun, interesting and educational. Mysterious combination, indeed!

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Magic versus Ritual, September 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Christian Magic (Paperback)

In an environment where `what we do is religion and what they do is magic' attitude, these compilers prefer to speak of `ritual' as a less value-ridden word and since the spells relate to that sphere of life we call `religion' the sub-title may be a more appropriate description. There are 135, dating from the first 1000 years of Christianity, in English, with notes and written originally on papyrus, parchment, rag paper, pottery or bone. There are love spells, healing spells, sexual spells, protective spells, spells to drive out demons, spells for a good singing voice or to silence a dog, and curses. A book for specialists.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, Not Great, August 2, 2006

By 

Prayerbead (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping for more information on Catholic and Christian folk magic and folk ways. This is deffinently more of a "ceremonial" type book calling on various spirits and angels. There also aren't many amulets presentes as the back of the book boasts, nor are there complete prayers, rather fractions of several prayers with many blanks left in between.