Smoke & mirrors : discourses of magic in early Petrine traditions /

'Smoke & Mirrors' how magic disappears & miracle emerges in a series of texts featuring the apostle Peter. Considering the contradiction of early Christian authors' approval of seemingly magical practices, such as exorcisms, Shaily Shashikant Patel examines the impact this tre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Patel, Shaily Shashikant (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • Introduction: "Magic" and Early Petrine Literary Traditions
  • Making Magic: Definitions of Magic in the Study of Early Christianity
  • (Not) Another Definition of Magic: Magic in the Graeco-Roman Imagination
  • Excursus: Apuleius' Apology: A Case Study in Word and Deed
  • Petrine Literature's "Magic Problem"
  • Why "Magic"?
  • Why Petrine Literary Traditions?
  • Caveats and Conclusions
  • 1 Magic and the Making of Miracles in the Gospel of Luke
  • Jesus the Magician? The Rhetoric of Lucan Miracle
  • Making Miracle: Lucan Redaction of Mark
  • Divine Power and Authority: Circumscribing Christian Miracle
  • SÄ“meia and Terata: Taxonomies of Miracle
  • Jesus the Messiah and Prophet: Lucan Redescription of Magical Practices
  • A Wonderworker Is as a Wonderworker Says: Prophecy, Messiahship, and Magic
  • A Wonderworker Who Delivers: Jesus' Fulfillment of Eschatological Promises
  • Fulfillment of Physical Promises
  • Metaphysical Fulfillment of Promises
  • Promise or Punishment? Luke's Metaphysical Dualism
  • A Wonderworker to Believe In: Faith and Magical Practices
  • Messiahs, Magicians, and Prophets
  • The Origins of Petrine Magic
  • 2 Magic and the Making of a Jesus Movement in the Canonical Acts
  • Peter the Apostle: Dunamis, Exousia, and the Rhetoric of Wonderworking in Acts
  • Excursus: Lucan Consolidation of Supernatural Agents and Expansion of Divine Dunamis
  • Peter the Apostle: Wonderworking and the Establishment of Apostolic Authority
  • Simon the Magician: Wonderworking and Usurpation
  • Making a Movement: Redescription of Magical Practices in Acts
  • A Christ-like Leader: Jesus-Peter Parallels in Wonderworking
  • Group Boundaries, Community Rules, and Wonderworking.
  • Wonderworking That Works: Group Benefits and Community Cohesion
  • Petrine Wonderworking and Christian Beginnings
  • 3 Magic and the Making of (a) Christianity in the Acts of Peter
  • An Apostle, a Seducer, and the Lapsed: The Rhetoric of Wonderworking in the Acts of Peter
  • Seeing Is Believing: A Deeds-Driven Christian Orthodoxy
  • Peter and the Terrible Power of Christ
  • A Better Magician: The Superiority of Petrine Wonderworking
  • Simon, the Diabolical Seducer
  • Simon and the Power of Carmina
  • Simon, the Young God
  • Forgiveness, Conversion, and Redescription of Magical Practices in the Acts of Peter
  • Petrine Wonderworking and Conversion
  • Petrine Wonderworking and Forgiveness
  • The Acts of Peter and Literary Trajectories of Christian Wonderworking
  • 4 Magic and the Making of Heresy in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies
  • True and False Knowledge: The Rhetoric of Magic-Heresy in the Homilies
  • The Genealogies of True Prophecy and Magic-Heresy
  • The Genealogy of True Prophecy
  • The Genealogy of Magic-Heresy
  • The Apostle of True Knowledge: Peter and Epistemic Authority
  • Peter and the Unchanging, Ahistorical Truth
  • Peter and the Revealed Truth
  • The Scion of Epistemic Error: Simon and Magic-Heresy
  • Peter the Truth-Teller and Simon the Heretic: Redescription of Magical Practices in the Homilies
  • Peter the Truth-Teller
  • Simon the Heretic
  • Magic, Heresy, and Late Antiquity
  • Coda: Lives and Afterlives of Petrine "Magic"
  • Bibliography
  • Index.