Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles [Paperback]

Hans Josef Klauck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Many forms of magic and paganism were practiced at the time of Jesus. This text explains what they were and how the first Christians reacted to them. Included are accounts of the many experiences of the first Christians recorded in Acts such as Peter encountering the Samaritan magician Simon, and in Athens Paul finds the city full of idols but also discovers an altar "to an unknown god".

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hans-Josef Klauck is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago. He has published commentaries and monographs on 1 Corinthians, the Johannine epistles, New Testament theology, noncanonical gospels, and the history of religion in the Graeco-Roman world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Fortress Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080063635X
• ISBN-13: 978-0800636357
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent study., January 27, 2005

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Wesley L. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles (Paperback)

This volume, smallish but rigorous enough, may for some students be an insightful supplement to the study of Luke's Acts. However, it is interesting in its own merits, as history/ scholarship and as exegesis.

From Klauck's introduction: "[W]e now have the possibility of standing afresh in a situation that was a matter of everyday living for the first Christian generations. At the beginning, the Christian faith had to assert itself among the rival religious views which literally competed with one another on the market-place for the favour of the public."

"Like Philo and Josephus, Luke begins by presenting his material in a form which met the expectations of an educated Greek and Roman public." (p4) Luke, we recall, was a gentile and a scientist (a physician) -- the sciences of the Greco-Roman world being astronomy, mathematics and medicine. It is not surprising that Luke's interests engage the 'marketplace of ideas' in which Christianity grew in spite of resistance on all sides. While his approbation of the apostles is evident, his Acts of the Apostles is essentially documentation, it is not polemic. "The primary intention of the Acts of the Apostles as a book is not missionary, but it does portray missionary history, as an inspiration to the reader." (p121)

Klauck's many interesting considerations include Paul's discourse with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens, at the Areopagus, and encounters with practitioners of magic. In the author's summary words: "Acts employs dramatic episodes, verbal discourses, summary descriptions of the state of affairs, and narrative commentaries. . . the result is a broad and vivid picture. In the course of the narrative, we gradually encounter a whole series of . . . magicians, astrologers and exorcists . . . a king who does not distance himself sufficiently from the cult of rulers . . . a seer . . . devotees of polytheistic belief . . . philosophers whose curiosity is more noticeable than their academic training . . . kindly barbarians and some genuinely 'noble' pagans.

"Despite all the criticism of some defective forms, we do not find any heavily aggressive polemic. Instead, there is a subtle irony which occasionally takes the form of brilliant parodies." (p119)

The bibliography lists a wealth of resources essentially for the multi-lingual reader (German, English, French).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insightful and well-researched, February 6, 2011

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R. Grunow "Grunow" (Homestead FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles (Paperback)

After years of reading about Early Christianity, Hans-Josef Klauck's work Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity has been fascinating and eye-opening into the beliefs and sociocultural attitudes in Ancient times. He has already filled many gaps in my knowledge and perspective with regards to reading Acts, and I am only half-way through it. He brings in contemporary pagan ideas to contrast with the newly born Christianity, which is also trying to separate from Judaism. For example, I just read about Paul's exorcism of the slave girl in Philippi, and his perspective has opened up my eyes to seeing the pagan point of view of Judaism and Christianity.

If you have any interest in this subject, if you are Christian, Jewish, or pagan (or none of the above) yourself, you can get a lot from this book.