ABSTRACT

Spirit Possession and Communication in Religious and Cultural Contexts explores the phenomenon of spirit possession, focusing on the religious and cultural functions it serves as a means of communication.

Drawing on the multidisciplinary expertise of philosophers, anthropologists, historians, linguists, and scholars of religion and the Bible, the volume investigates the ways that spirit possession narratives, events, and rituals are often interwoven around communicative acts, both between spiritual and earthly realms and between members of a community.

This book offers fresh insight into the enduring cultural and religious significance of spirit possession. It will be an important resource for scholars from a diverse range of disciplines, including religion, anthropology, history, linguistics, and philosophy.

chapter |12 pages

Spirit possession and communication

Introduction

chapter 1|19 pages

Spirit possession in the Bible

chapter 2|25 pages

Mental illness and demon possession

Reading the New Testament

chapter 3|17 pages

The ghosts of the past are the demons of the present

Evangelical Third Wave deliverance as a gothic therapeutic

chapter 4|18 pages

Ulu‘isino

Divine possession and the legitimation of temporal agency in late pre-Christian Tonga

chapter 6|16 pages

Keeping it in the family

Ancestral talkback on Takū

chapter 7|27 pages

Even demons cooperate

Imitation and conceptual convergence in possession narratives

chapter 8|22 pages

How demons speak

The voice of demonic possession