Mental & Spiritual Healing, New Testament Studies, General & Miscellaneous Bible Studies, Early Church - History, Dissociative Disorders, General & Miscellaneous Church History, Spiritualism, Religion - General & Miscellaneous, Jesus Christ

Jesus the Healer

Name: Jesus the Healer
Author: Stevan L. Davies
ISBN: 9780826407948

by Stevan L. Davies

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Overview

Arguing that the Gospels reveal Jesus to have been a spirit-possessed healer and an exorcist of demon-possessed people, Stevan L. Davies shows how contemporary anthropological studies brilliantly illuminate precisely those facts. Jesus had a gift for the induction of religious trance states that he considered to be the present experience of the kingdom of God. His ability to bring about such states can be understood by analogy to the increasingly acclaimed psychotherapeutic techniques of Milton Erickson. After Jesus' death, the experience of spirit-possession became definitive for his followers. The writings of Paul, John, and Mark are different forms of reflection on the nature of the experience of spirit-possession, and are not so different as they are usually taken to be. Jesus the Healer argues that at least some of the sayings of Jesus in John's gospel - for example, "I and the Father are one" and "I come from the Father" - are quotations from Jesus himself when possessed by and speaking as the spirit of God. This book is a radical new look at Jesus as exorcist and healer.

Arguing that the Gospels reveal Jesus to have been a spirit-possessed healer and an exorcist of demon-possessed people, Davies shows how contemporary anthropological studies brilliantly illuminate precisely those facts. Jesus' ability to bring about religious trance states can be understood by analogy to the increasingly acclaimed psychotherapeutic techniques of Milton Erickson.

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Editorials

Steve Schroeder

In this fascinating addition to the vast and ever expanding body of historical Jesus literature, Davies' unique contribution is his application of comparative anthropological and psychological research into spirit possession to the historical Jesus. He depicts the Jesus of history as a spirit-possessed healer whose healing was effected by induction of spirit possession analogous to the psychotherapeutic techniques of Milton Erickson. One of the more intriguing results of Davies' approach is that it reunites the Jesus of history with the Christ of faith, thus "solving" a perennial problem for historical Jesus research. In shifting attention from Jesus as teacher to Jesus as healer (or therapist), Davies also makes a potentially important contribution to theologically informed discussion of the teacher's role. In theological discussion of the work of Jesus, that role has often been defined (as Davies assumes) as ideological indoctrination or "transmission" of information. If Davies' discussion reminds readers of the more venerable definition of teaching as "turning the soul," it will have provided an invaluable service, whether or not the picture of Jesus as therapist proves more convincing than the many available alternatives.