Religion and Theology
June 16, 2026
Pieter F. Craffert
Abstract The debate between evangelical and skeptical scholars about Jesus’s post-mortem appearances has long been framed as a binary choice: either his followers literally saw a bodily resurrected Jesus (the Resurrection Hypothesis) or they experienced hallucinations and collective delusions (the Hallucination Hypothesis). This article argues that despite their radical disagreement, both...
Religion and Theology
December 20, 2023
Silakhe Singata
Abstract This article is an open exploration of an understanding of colonial and post-colonial spirit possession phenomena as discourse by other means. I begin with Bernhard Leistle’s phenomenological interpretation of demon possession as an entry point to the sort of understanding of possession this article seeks to approximate. From there I turn to Frantz Fanon’s notion of possession as a...
Religion and Theology
2020
Puiu Ionita
Mysticism is a way of knowing, but one based solely on experience. It is basically knowledge through love. Although religions have visible differences, mysticism is only one. The yogi and the Kabbalah worshiper, the Sufi, the hesychast and the Western mystical, all go through the same route, have the same behaviour and follow the same purpose. In contrast to other ways of knowing, the mystical...
Religion and Theology
December 10, 2019
P. Craffert
1 citation
The almost complete absence of any reference to the terms shaman and shamanism in Biblical Studies has its roots in the historical prejudice in Western scholarship against them, and originated from colonial ethnocentrism and Christian notions of superiority. However, the shaman, defined as a practitioner who based on the alteration of ordinary consciousness serves a community with particular...
Religion and Theology
2003
Jean Evans, Celia E.T. Kourie
AbstractTextual analysis represents the most viable approach towards gaining a greater understanding of the nature and characteristics of mystical consciousness. An analysis of a text from Simone Weil, the French philosopher and champion of workers' rights, indicates that mystical consciousness is a received moment of heightened awareness. Mystical consciousness is both self-aware and aware of...