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Library Journal Review

The use of magic or ritual in the early practice of the Christian religion reflects its roots in folk practices and beliefs. This volume presents a sampling of English translations of early texts, dating from 100 C.E. to the 12th century, that concern private rituals done for specific purposes (e.g., to attract a woman, to cure a medical problem). Each section begins with an essay about the kinds of texts included in the section. The book is valuable it makes available the English translations of ritual texts from the early era of Christianity that show how practitioners viewed their relationship to power, demons, angels, and God. Recommended for academic collections supporting Christian religious scholarship.-- Gail Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology Lib., Alfred (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Traditionalists may find heretical the use of ``Christian'' as a modifier for ``magic.'' But it's an apt combination for this gathering of previously untranslated curses, recipes and spells ritualistically cast by Egyptian Christians. In the Coptic language of the early Gnostics the words for ``religion'' and ``magic'' have common roots. While the texts offered here are individually intriguing (especially those about sex and healing), their cumulative effect is, as the editors note, that ``they demonstrate that Christianity can take the form of a folk religion . . . making use of ritual power for all sorts of practical purposes.'' There is, however, something else happening here as well. The materials gathered in this book largely date from the era of the Nag Hammadi Library, which, since its 1945 discovery in Egypt, has revealed aspects of early Christianity in a manner and scope comparable to that with which the Dead Sea Scrolls have illuminated the study of ancient Judaism; as a result, this collection also deepens and broadens our knowledge of how believers in Christ lived before the ``Church'' evolved. Readers who made a religion bestseller of The Nag Hammadi translation, for which Smith was managing editor, will find this collection to be a valuable adjunct to that benchmark of scholarship on Christian origins. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved