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
July 21, 2020
Francis Landy
Abstract This essay examines the relationship between the biblical prophets and prophetic poetry in terms of the “shamanic complex.” First, a short characterization is given of the phenomenon of shamanism in archaic societies, shamanic techniques and alternate states of consciousness, as well as the social, cultural, and political role of shamanic figures. Second, the similarity between...
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
June 19, 2018
Pieter F. Craffert
1 citation
Abstract Except for demon possession, possession is a neglected and under-researched topic in New Testament studies in general and Jesus research in particular. That is unlike scholars from other disciplines who realise that spirit possession is a central feature in the emergence and growth of most religious traditions. This article first explains possession as a complex neurocultural...
Religion and Theology
2010
Cornel W. du Toit
The article offers examples of a post-Reformation theology which could be described as postmodern, post-metaphysical, anti-fundamentalist, immanent transcendent, corporeal, narrative, holistic and secularly spiritual. As examples of the kind of Reformed belief that is increasingly questioned it examines the doctrine of revelation, the doctrine of God and of salvation, with proposals of how they...
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...