Holy men and their sky journeys: a cross-cultural model.

Abstract

Insights from cultural anthropology, a science that compares cultures, and cognitive neuroscience, a discipline that deals with the one thing that all human beings have had in common for millennia: the human body, contribute to the construction of a model for analyzing and interpreting sky journeys made in alternate states of consciousness (ASCs) and reported in ancient literature.

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The authors of some ancient documents from the circum-Mediterranean world report making trips to the sky (see Couliano). While John, the author of Revelation, did that at least once (Rev 4:1-2), Paul likely did it more than once (2 Cor 12:1, though Smith [425-29] believes Paul is talking about Jesus and not himself). Enoch is perhaps the most sky-traveled of ancient authors (see 1 and 2 Enoch). In the case of John and Paul, the authors personally made the trip. In the latter case, an author ascribed the trip to an ancient personage around whom such a tradition easily grew (Gen 5:21-24). This seems to be the basis for scholars' divided opinion on the subject of sky journeys. Some believe the reports are fictions, especially when written about ancient personages, e.g., the Life of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Testament of Levi. Merkur and some contributors to the Collins and Fishbane collection would fall into this category, though they admit that there may be some basis in human experience for constructing the fiction. One reason for believing the reports are fictions is that apocalypses seem to allude literarily to previous apocalypses. Rowland represents the other perspective:

   It seems, therefore, a reasonable hypothesis that these visions in
   these apocalypses are in fact what they purport to be: the
   description of visions of visionaries who believed that it was
   possible for them to pierce the vault of heaven and be shown the
   most intimate secrets of God and his world [226].

What human experience would underlie sky journeys? Collins and Fishbane compare these to near death experiences and say "religious beliefs about flight of the soul have some foothold in human experience, however enigmatic that experience may be" (x). Actually, the near death experience (about which more below) has been and continues to be researched in the social sciences, but such research is often ignored by biblical scholars (witness Collins and Fishbane). Merkur (122) insists that "all instances of otherworldly journeys correspond to message dreams. They portray visual images as real perceptions of ordinarily invisible beings and scenes of the heavens, paradise, hell, and distant locations on earth." He doesn't indicate whence he drew the category "message dreams," but because he thinks these are dreams, he uses Freudian psychoanalysis to interpret reports of visions and sky journeys in the apocalypses. He concludes: "It is, I submit, untenable that ancient authors, writing fictions, could have invented a psychological syndrome that anticipated superego theory so very well. The theoretic coherence of their visionary practice is a testament to its reality." Of course, Merkur wrote before Pilch (quoting Stannard) argued that modern western psychiatry and psychology are inappropriate tools for analyzing ancient Mediterranean documents (Pilch 1997: 112). The proper tool is cross-cultural psychology, a relatively recent development. The International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) was organized in 1972, formalizing a movement that began in the 1960s.

In this article, I will draw on insights from cultural anthropology, a science that compares cultures, and neuroscience, a discipline that deals with the one thing that all human beings have had in common for millennia: the human body. I will examine the notion of a sky journey, the journey or trip itself, and the destination of the journey.

The Sky Journey

   The shamanic soul flight (or soul journey) can be defined as an
   ASC (=alternate state of consciousness; I now use "alternate"
   instead of "altered" which implies a static, foundational state
   which no social scientist accepts) in which some aspect of the
   experient--soul, spirit, or perceptual capacities--is thought to
   travel to or be projected to another place, generally a spirit world
   [Winkelman: 411].

The adjective "shamanic" is critical. Anthropologists recognize that while human beings in general are capable of ASCs, it is the shamans alone who primarily travel to the sky (Walsh: 141). Because I am investigating biblical and related traditions, I have replaced the word "shaman" with "holy man/holy woman" (Pilch 2004d: 16; see also Brown: 154; and Kehoe: 53-54). In this regard, I agree with those anthropologists who believe that the word "shaman" properly describes this figure among the Siberian Tungus and should be limited to that discussion.

Winkelman's definition also highlights a still unresolved discussion about the nature of the sky-journey experience: exactly who or what travels? He claims that it is a dimension or aspect of the human person: soul, spirit, or perceptual capacity. The still unresolved anthropological (ontological?) question is: are these journeys truly exosomatic? Or are they simply imaginal (that is, mind-created imagery; see Walsh: 155-56). The majority of biblical interpreters seem to accept them as imaginal.

   I am not inclined to read the ascent apocalypses as reflecting the
   author's experience in any but the most indirect way, as any
   author's experience is reflected in his writing. My reasons have to
   do primarily with the highly literary nature of these works and the
   way in which ascents are integrally related to the narratives of
   which they form a part [Himmelfarb: 133].

Likewise, Smith (411) affirms that "imaginative" [persons] actually believed they experienced the journeys about which they read and wrote.

In contrast, Rowland (230) represents those scholars who believe these visionaries did indeed on occasion dissolve the boundaries between consensual reality and alternate reality and reach the realm of God, the spirit world (see also Stutley: 29, who uses the phrase "dissolve the boundaries of the mundane world"). His view would fit Winkelman's definition that some element of the human person makes an actual journey. The dearest example occurs in the Ascension of Isaiah (second century BCE-fourth century CE). Though his companions "did not think that the holy Isaiah had been taken up" (6:14), the angel (spirit guide) who took Isaiah on his journey through the sky says "you have to return into this body" (7:5; see also 8:11). Thus this author-visionary claims his journey was what contemporary anthropological science calls an "out of body experience" (OOBE).

Indeed, anthropologists and psychiatrists note that while shamanic sky journeys are induced and directed, many contemporary (and ancient)

personages have had similar but spontaneous and entirely unsought experiences, namely: out of body experiences (OOBE), near death experiences (NDE), and lucid dreaming (see Walsh: 140--Walsh is a psychiatrist and anthropologist at the University of California-Irvine).

In his classic cross-cultural study of the out-of-the-body-experience, which he identifies as the core element of the shamanic soul flight or sky journey, Shiels concludes, after examining beliefs in such experiences in nearly 70 non-Western cultures, that the experience is nearly universal (see also Winkelman: 411). The similarities are scientifically notable despite cultural differences. Further research by cognitive neuroscientists (d'Aquili and Newberg) explain that the universality is rooted in an integrated psychophysiological and archetypal structure. The human organism has been capable of (they use the phrase "hardwired for") this experience for millennia.

A follow-up study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, contributes further insight. Twemlow at al. (450) define the OOBE as "an experience where you felt that your mind or awareness was separated from your physical body." What is distinctive about this experience is a "sense of the location of the total sense of self at some place other than in the physical body." The researchers also noted that their results do not support the notion "that religious conditioning, preoccupation with esoteric belief system, or preexisting psychopathology explains the OOBE." This would confirm Smith's claim (416-17) that the root of the notion of "ascents" is "not in the expectations of the End, i.e., in the apocalyptic tradition, but rather in some immediate experience in the Christian life." Anthropologists think that it was the spontaneous experiences of ASCs and journey states that inspired holy men/women to learn how to induce them at will.

Studies of near death or clinical death experiences have given anthropologists a clue to the stages of a journey. The first stage of an NDE is a profound sense of peace and well being. This is followed by the shock or surprise of finding oneself outside the body, apparently capable of hearing and seeing everything that is taking place, including the view of one's own body lying unconscious. The next stage is a sense of moving through a tunnel that is often dark. At the end one sees brilliant light or a luminous figure. In NDEs, the dying person merges with this light phenomenon in ecstatic love. The third and final stage is the realization that death would be premature and the dying person must return to consensual reality (Walsh: 150).

The stages Walsh has identified are similar to those identified for ASC experiences in general (see Pilch 2004d: 71-74; 2002: 695-97). In Stage One, the person sees geometric patterns: dots, zigzags that look like lightning strikes, lines or sticks that may or may not be parallel, crossed, vertical, horizontal, etc. One also sees light and bright colors that flicker, pulsate, or blend. These experiences reflect the neurological events taking place with the person's body, especially the brain. In stage two, the visionary seeks to impose meaning on these patterns and light. Visionaries in hunter-gatherer cultures may see animals. Other visionaries impose personal, religious, emotional, or other significance. Bright light (white) in the biblical tradition is associated with God and the realm of God. Yahweh's glory is always described as bright light (Is 60:1; 62:1; Luke 2:9; etc.). Finally, stage three is the deepest part of the trance. Often the visionary travels through a tunnel, a vortex, a narrow passage way, a vagina, or something similar, and arrives in a place of light, even subdued light. Sometimes this world seems bizarre (e.g., Dan 7). And it is in this stage that journeys or metamorphoses can occur. When the vision is ended, the visionary gives these usual experiences a "rational" interpretation. Since NDEs are in the realm of ASC experiences, it should not be surprising that their stages are similar. On the other hand, in the NDE a person has little to no control over the event, whereas sky journeys are often directed by the visionary.

Finally, the third experience that is similar to sky journeys is that of dream travel and lucid dreams. Walsh (151) notes that this type of cosmic traveling is something "we have all experienced." Winkelman identifies ASCs as "perhaps a universal of human societies" (393) and, with specific reference to sky journeys, he notes that it is generally available to moderns (412, referring especially to the research and experience of Harner). Some native cultures and their holy persons regard dream experiences and travels as "no less real or valuable than waking ones" (Walsh: 151). Lucid dreaming is a similar strategy, which allows the dreamer to direct the dream much as a holy person directs the sky journey. This technique has been most developed in Tibetan dream yoga.

In conclusion, these three experiences: OOBEs, NDE,s and lucid dreaming seem to have occurred spontaneously through the course of human existence. Walsh (152) suggests that they may have provided the basis for the belief that elements of the human person might also be able to travel. Eventually, holy people of given cultures developed techniques for sky travel and outfitted them with an explanatory ideology that fit well within the worldview of the culture.

The Trip

Walsh points out (142) that the sky journey involves three phases: a preparation and purification, the inducement of an ASC, and the actual journey. Purification is especially important when the purpose of the ASC is to visit the spirit world. Human intruders into that world want to make themselves as worthy as possible of entering into that realm and interacting with its inhabitants. Native Americans generally burn sweet grass or something similar in order to smudge (purify) themselves in preparation for the ASC. There is no doubt that that smell also contributes to inducing the alternate state. If Isaiah's call vision took place in the Temple (Is 6:4), the "smoke" that filled that house may have been smoke from burnt offerings and incense, either of which could serve as a physical, neurological trigger for an ASC.

Elements of the preparation for an ASC include isolation or withdrawal from society (see Luke 9:28//), fasting (Matt 4:1//Luke 4:2), prayer (Luke 9:28//), sexual abstinence, sleep deprivation and/or sight deprivation at night, and the like. Merkur (126-27) also identifies ritual mourning as an induction technique. Lamentation, prayer, fasting, weeping in solitude, and wearing sackcloth and ashes seem to have been elements in a full complement of ascetic practices that related to ritual morning (see e.g., Dan 9:3-4, 20-22; 10:2-5; etc.).

Merkur further hypothesizes that the induction technique of mourning actually stimulated some of the experience. Lamentation and weeping induced uncontrollable distress. Fasting, darkness and sleep deprivation provided agitation or arousal of the spirit. Moreover, prayers and lamentations gave a religious character to the ASC (Merkur: 128-29). While this hypothetical interpretation is somewhat plausible, Winkelman (398-402) offers a better explanation of the physiology of a wide array of ASC induction procedures that helps one to appreciate how the human experience takes place and why it is so universal throughout time from pre-history to the present. Thus, as one example, fasting or nutritional deficits affect serotonin synthesis in the human body and produce emotional disturbances, hallucinations, alterations in cognitive and emotional functioning, and occasionally symptoms that are interpreted as possession (e.g., convulsions, see Mark 9:14-29//).

The second stage of the sky journey is to induce an ASC if the preparatory elements of the ritual have not yet initiated it. Experiments indicate that those who seek to induce and control an ASC often begin to slip into it during the preparation (relaxation, deep breathing, meditation, repeating a mantra, and the like). Since the continuity of consciousness is an illusion (Rossi: 111, quoting the hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson), scholars recognize that human beings slip in and out of more than thirty-four different levels of consciousness throughout the day (Crapanzano: 632). Indeed, even during a sky journey ASC, the traveler might slip out of that experience for a while and then return to continue the journey. In an induced ASC, the visionary is in charge and capable of directing the experience by "checking" to see which of the conditions might be failing. Among the many typical ASC-inducing methods are rattling, drumming, singing, chanting, dancing, hunger, thirst, sleep loss, and sensory deprivation (Winkelman: 397). From a neurological perspective, these are strategies for overstimulating the senses, which induce an ASC "from the bottom up," or in technical terms, an ASC that begins in the autonomic nervous system and moves to the brain (see Pilch 2004d: 174-75). Meditation, on the other hand, is a technique that induces an ASC "from the top down"; that is, it begins in the brain and eventually entrains the entire nervous system. (This is a plausible explanation of the activities of mystics like Joseph of Cupertino [1602-62] who often traveled seven or eight feet off the ground to kiss the statue of the holy infant on the altar. One day he reportedly carried another friar with him as he floated around the room. Something similar is reported of St. Teresa [1515-82] who sometimes had nuns sit on her to keep her from floating.) While many sky journeys in ancient literature involve some sort of technique on the part of the visionary, others come at God's initiative (Himmelfarb: 131 ). Presumably, if God can initiate such an experience, the human person is capable of it.

The third part is the actual journey. There is great diversity in the ethnographic record of reported journeys. Walsh (143) thinks that perhaps this is because "no one can rightly explain how the journey is made." As noted above, some claim that only a part of the holy person travels (soul or spirit), while others say that the holy one makes the journey in person. The journey take place in a number of ways (Walsh: 148). The visionary may be transformed into a bird and go soaring aloft, or a bird can transport the visionary. In some traditions, the eagle is recognized as the father of the first sky traveler (Stutley: 73); hence it serves all subsequent sky travelers as the vehicle par excellence (see the suggestive references in Exodus 19:4; Isaiah 40:31; Obadiah 4). At times, the instrument used for over-stimulating the senses (e.g., the drum) acts as the vehicle by which the visionary makes the journey to the sky (Stutley: 72). At other times, the visionary climbs the axis that runs through the three worlds: upper, middle, and lower (about which more below). Sometimes the axis is the world tree (not to be confused with the tree in the garden of Eden, see Pilch 2004b). On other occasions, the visionary ascends a mountain (Rev 21:10), a rainbow, or a ladder (see Gen 28:10 and the ladder that sky servants used for visiting the earth and returning to the sky). Sky travelers also use a variety of "roads" to reach their destination (Stutley: 15). This is quite evident on some "maps" drawn by shamans and published by Joseph Campbell (see Campbell: 158 and 167). Curiously, the maps never agree. Felicitas Goodman published a map of the lower world drawn by one of her workshop participants in Vienna (Goodman & Nauwald 2003: 76). This trained cartographer was excited about his visit to the lower world in an ASC and planned to map all of alternate reality. Unfortunately, he didn't retain contact with Goodman and never returned for subsequent workshops or research sessions. She was disappointed because she believes that "one cannot depict the other reality with only the means of ordinary reality." Still, she was interested in learning what a trained cartographer might discover. Other maps he would have drawn might have made a singular contribution to the ongoing research of her research Institute and to the anthropological data base on sky journeys.

The Destination

As already indicated, sky travelers journey to the upper, middle, or lower world. This concept of the cosmos seems rooted in the way of thinking of Paleolithic hunters and gatherers (Stutley: 45). Still, these zones or planes of the cosmos are given different interpretations among cultures. The Chukchi (NE Russia) cosmos has five, seven, or nine worlds, each one above the other. Among the Ainu (indigenous people of the Japanese archipelago), good spirits live on seventeen levels above the earth, while bad ones inhabit nine or seven levels under the earth (Stutley: 49, 59). Perhaps this helps clarify the varying number of "heavens" visited by biblical and extra-biblical personalities (see Elliott: 654, esp. note 281). Rather than attempting to map the terrain traversed, it would seem more appropriate and useful to explore what is transpiring in the visit. Is the visionary learning new information of value to fellow human beings? Does the visionary receive gifts (information, healing, a new life direction, etc.) for fellow human beings?

These three worlds are located in the mythical tree of life, which stands in the center of the universe (Pilch 2004a: 178). Indeed, it contains the universe. Just as the interpretation of these worlds differs among cultures, so to does their interpretation of the inhabitants of each of these worlds. In general, however, the lower world (roots of the tree) is the abode of the dead and/or "helping" spirits. The middle world (tree trunk) contains the spirit or essence of all things. It is the "real world" behind the visible world--actually, a mirror image of the world in which human beings reside during their lifetime. The upper world (branches of the tree) contains everything that exists inside and outside our galaxy. Holy men/women in each culture are especially known for their ability to journey to these worlds in an ASC. Ezekiel (3:14-15) and John (Rev 4:1-2) are two holy men in the biblical tradition who visited one or another of these worlds.

The equivalent of the lower world in the biblical tradition is sheol, the abode of the dead (see Pilch 2004a). This is not the place of punishment, which emerged in later Second Temple Judaism (see 1 Enoch 54:1-2), or the New Testament Gehenna. The opening to this world, according to Talmudic tradition (Erubim 19a) is located in the Valley of Hinnom. It is not a place that a person might want to visit.

The equivalent of the upper world in the biblical tradition is the sky (see Pilch 2004b). Unfortunately the word is too often translated as "heaven," a term that carries with it centuries of evolved theological understanding. Presently, heaven is the human state of bliss or happiness rooted in the vision and enjoyment of God, technically called the "beatific vision." In the biblical world, the sky was simply the abode of God, the realm of the spirits, and the abode of righteous believers. One would certainly want to visit this world to gain information or visit with one's ancestors and most certainly with God and the spirits.

The equivalent of the middle world in the biblical tradition is the earth, "the entirety of material existence" (Janzen: 245). As I have explained elsewhere, however (Pilch 2004c), anthropologists call this earth "consensual reality." Parallel to it exists alternate reality which is what the middle world on the cosmic tree of life represents. This middle world is the "real world" behind our visible world, our consensual reality. In the biblical tradition, the concept of "navel" or center of the earth helps us to learn where the middle world is. For the ancients built the earthly residence of their God at the "navel," above which was an opening to the sky, the abode of God (Pilch 1999:148). If one knew where the navel was, one could travel to the sky, "break the barrier" as it were, and visit with the spirit realm. In early Israelite tradition, the center may have been Bethel where Jacob saw the ladder and spirits ascending and descending (Gen 28:17). Another early Israelite tradition saw the center at Babylon (about fifty miles south of Baghdad, Iraq), where the tower allowed God to come to earth through the hole in the sky to visit Babylon. Earlier in the Babylonian tradition, Nippur was the center. It was in this vicinity that Ezekiel experienced God in ASCs. Thus, holy men and women like the Patriarch Jacob and the Prophet Ezekiel could find the tree of life and gain insight from the middle world on that tree, the "real world", that could then be applied to life on earth where human beings lived.

Thus, each journey is different because each of these worlds is different. Entrance to the lower world might be through a cave, a hollow tree stump, a water hole, a tube or tunnel, or something similar (see the Talmudic tradition mentioned above). The novice traveler often must undergo tests or challenges, but the experienced holy person is familiar with the road and the terrain and encounters no such problems. Trips to the upper world, the abode of the spirits including God, are particularly ecstatic. Here teachers and guides can be found, and information and/or gifts of import to human beings are obtained by the sky traveler. The journey to the upper world is often facilitated by the holy person traveling to a raised area like a mountain, tree top, or cliff. From here the holy person can more easily ascend to the sky.

At some point in the journey to the upper or lower world, the traveler must pierce the "membrane" that separates the worlds (Walsh: 147). Others describe the challenge as dissolving the boundaries between the worlds (Stutley: 29; 36-37; see above, par. 7). In the biblical tradition, this would be equivalent to knowing where the hole in the sky is located. The neurological explanation for this dimension of the ASC experience is that the induction technique that the holy person is using (some form of sensory overstimulation) expands normal consciousness so that the ego unites with the rest of the cosmos and heightens the sensitivity of all the senses. This expanded consciousness is what "dissolves" the boundary between the worlds. Among the associated experiences, especially noteworthy is the slowing down or abolition of the sense of time. Participant researchers in trance experiences invariably report how the usual fifteen minute period felt: it went quickly; it dragged; the researcher felt as if more time was spent in ordinary consciousness than in the ASC; etc. Most people know this flexible experience of time from dreams in which elements of past and present mingle without distinction. In trance, however, the future is usually inaccessible (see Goodman & Nauwald: 68-69; Stutley: 29). Everything is experienced simultaneously. This is why the visionary seeks to sort out the experience and interpret it in a way that makes sense to self and to others.

Conclusion

The cross-cultural model for analyzing sky journeys (the term includes journeys' destinations other than the sky as well) fleshed out with insights about alternate states of consciousness in general promises to be a useful tool for interpreting such reports in ancient literature. The model was designed inductively from scholars' review of ethnographic literature. Its hermeneutical value can be tested by applying it to the interpretation of journeys reported in biblical and extra-biblical literature.

Works Cited

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Campbell, Joseph. 1983. THE WAY OF THE ANIMAL POWERS. Vol. 1. HISTORICAL ATLAS OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. (See pp. 158 and 167 for sky maps drawn by Siberian and Eskimo shamans; pp. 94-95 for Bushman sky maps).

Collins, John J, & Michael Fishbane. (eds). 1995. DEATH. ECSTASY, AND OTHER WORLDLY JOURNEYS. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

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Harner, Michael. 1990. THE WAY OF THE SHAMAN. 3rd edition. San Francisco, CA: Harper.

Himmelfarb, Martha. 1995. The Practice of Ascent in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Pp. 121-37 in Collins & Fishbane, DEATH. ECSTASY, AND OTHER WORLDLY JOURNEYS.

Janzen, W. Earth. ANCHOR BIBLE DICTIONARY, II: 245-48.

Kehoe, Alice Beck. 2000. SHAMANS AND RELIGION: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXPLORATION IN CRITICAL THINKING. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Merkur, Daniel. 1989. The Visionary Practices of Jewish Apocalyptists. Pp. 125-34 in THE PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY OF SOCIETY 14, edited by L. Bryce Boyer and Simon A. Grolnick. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.

Pilch, John J. 2004a. A Window into the Biblical World: Hell in the Bible. THE BIBLE TODAY 42/3: 178-82.

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2004c. A Window into the Biblical World: Earth in the Bible. THE BIBLE TODAY 42/5: 311-14.

2004d. VISIONS AND HEALING IN ACTS OF THE APOSTLES: HOW THE EARLY BELIEVERS EXPERIENCED GOD. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.

2002. Paul's ecstatic trance experience near Damascus in Acts of the Apostles. HERVORMDE TEOLOGIESE STUDIES 58: 690-07.

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Rossi, Ernest Lawrence. 1986. Altered States of Consciousness in Everyday Life: The Ultradian Rhythms. Pp. 97-132 in HANDBOOK OF STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, edited by Benjamin B. Wolman & Montague Ullman. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.

Rowland, Christopher. 1982. THE OPEN HEAVEN: A STUDY OF APOCALYPTIC IN JUDAISM AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY. New York, NY: Crossroad. See esp. pp. 214-47.

Shiels, D. 1978. A Cross-cultural Study of Beliefs in Out-of-the-Body Experiences, Waking, and Sleeping. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 49: 697-741.

Smith, Morton. 1981. Ascent to the Heavens and the Beginning of Christianity. ERANOS-JAHRBUCH 50:403-29.

Stutley, Margaret. 2003. SHAMANISM: AN INTRODUCTION. London, UK/New York, NY: Routledge.

Tabor, James D. 1992. Heaven, Ascent to. ANCHOR BIBLE DICTIONARY, III: 91-94.

Twemlow, S. D., G. O. Gabbard, & F. C. Jones. 1982. The Out of Body Experience: a Phenomenological Typology Based on Questionnaire Responses. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY 134: 450-55.

Walsh, Roger N. 1990. THE SPIRIT OF SHAMANISM. Los Angeles, CA: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.

Winkelman, Michael. 1999. Altered States of Consciousness and Religious Behavior. Pp. 393-428 in ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION: A HANDBOOK, edited by Stephen D. Glazier. Westport, CT/London, UK: Praegher.

John J. Pilch, Ph.D. (Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI) is Professorial Lecturer at Georgetown University, Washington, DC since 1993, Visiting Professor at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Hong Kong, SAR China, and Research Associate in the Department of New Testament Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is the author of many books and articles applying social scientific methods to the interpretation of the Bible, most recently VISIONS AND HEALING IN ACTS OF THE APOSTLES: HOW THE EARLY BELIEVERS EXPERIENCED GOD. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2004) E-mail: [e-mail].