Having the Spirit of Christ

“An invitation to theologians, and perhaps especially to Pentecostal ones, to explore the manifold ways in which spirit experience shaped early Christ groups and the texts of the New Testament”—Reed Carlson, Pneuma

“A thoughtful and intelligent contribution to a subject too long ignored or explained away by modern rationalistic approaches.”—Donald Senior, Bible Today

“This is perhaps the first, and certainly the most serious, work to take in earnest the fact that spirit possession and control of spirits are broadly attested cross-culturally, and should not be sidelined as peripheral and marginal features of human societies. This is a book that changes the game.”—John S. Kloppenborg, author of Christ’s Associations

“In this insightful and convincing book, Giovanni Bazzana skillfully treats the fascinating topic of spirit possession in earliest Christianity. His sure touch will make this the go-to volume on the topic.”—Lawrence M. Wills, author of Not God's People: Insiders and Outsiders in the Biblical World
 

“Engaging contemporary anthropological theories, Bazzana focuses on the gospels and Paul’s letters, placing them with precision among a host of ancient texts. This book helps readers to rethink the worldview of the earliest Christ-followers, whose practices of spirit possession may have produced ideas about the past and about subjectivity that we haven’t yet comprehended.”—Laura Salah Nasrallah, author of Archaeology and the Letters of Paul

"Brilliant, sophisticated, and cutting-edge, this paradigm-breaking work uses the anthropology of spirit possession, combined with meticulous textual analysis, to solve some notorious interpretive cruxes in the New Testament. Bazzana completely transforms and illuminates our understanding of the first followers of Jesus."—William Arnal, University of Regina
 

“Bazzana challenges readers to take exorcisms and possessions seriously as crucial, embodied, and practical features of Jesus’s and the Christ groups’ historical activity.”—Jennifer Knust, Duke University