Spirit possession elicits two common responses – rites to exorcise Satan or medical intervention. Drawing on pastoral experiences in the two major cultures of Fiji, this paper examines different types of spirit possession from the perspectives of social anthropology, psychology, and theology, which all play important roles in dealing with cases of spirit possession. Understanding of and...
136 Book Reviews / Mission Studies 25 (2008) 115–152 Th e Unity of Mystical Traditions: Th e Transformation of Consciousness in Tibetan and German Mysticism . By Randall Studstill. Leiden, Brill 2005. Pp. xii + 304. $127.00. “Mysticism” is a term bandied about so much in popular discourse that it has almost been stripped of meaning, constituting a veritable Rorschach blot whose definition is in...
Abstract: In this article Columban missionary, Frank Hoare, examines incidents of spirit possession and witchcraft accusations in a Catholic Fijian village. Spirit possession has a communal dimension in socio-centric cultures and the tensions of the community are played out in and through the messages of the spirit. Crises of evil are understood as essentially moral and connect the individual,...