Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles.

Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles. By Hans-Josef Klauck. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. xii and 136 pages. Paper. $15.00.

Acts is clearly anchored in the world of the first-century Eastern Mediterranean world. Various approaches have shown that. Sir William Ramsay years ago studied the sites and epigraphy of Asia Minor and found much that supported the accuracy of Acts. Others have studied the history and social structure of the sites, e.g., H. J. Cadbury and Colin Hemer, while Bruce Winter edited a five-volume study of the Book of Acts that located it in the culture of the first century. A. N. Sherwin-White correlated the text of Acts with Roman Law in Roman Law and Roman Society in the New Testament (Baker, 1992).

Klauck's slim book is a valuable addition to this literature. He looks at the religious context of Acts narratives, primarily those where there is material from Greco-Roman cities. His chapters cover the beginning (Acts 1-2), the evangelist Philip (Acts 8, Simon Magus and The Ethopian Eunuch), Caesarea (Acts 10-12), Paphos in Cyprus and Lystra (Acts 13:4-12; 14:8-20), Paul in Greece (Philippi and Athens), the Ephesus account (magic and the silversmiths in Acts 19), and the journey to Rome (Acts 27-28). Each narrative is carefully interpreted, with special attention to the role of magic and to relations with the Gentile world. This is a good read, interesting and informative. Klauck's own summary of his book communicates its coverage well (p. 119):

If one assembles these individual fragments, the result is a very broad
and vivid picture. In the course of the narrative, we gradually
encounter a whole series of contemporary religious phenomena, each
represented by specific adherents: magicians, astrologers and exorcists
of Jewish or semi-Jewish provenance; a king who does not distance
himself sufficiently from the cult of rulers, in an episode which also
addressed the Roman imperial cult; a seer on a small scale with her
greedy owners, as exponent of the classical manteia; devotees of
polytheistic belief, who have recourse to familiar forms of sacrifice,
or who defend the goddess of their city and fear for the future of their
traffic in devotional souvenirs; philosophers whose curiosity is more
noticeable than their academic training; but also kindly barbarians and
some genuinely 'noble' pagans.

Klauck is Professor of New Testament in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

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