SCHOLARS' RESOURCE
"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider." --Francis Bacon
This page is dedicated to those inquisitive individuals who want to begin to broaden their understanding of early Judaism, early Christianity, and the emergence and development of Christian doctrine. Too often, the public is fed a mediocre diet in the general field of religion; a diet prescribed by those who are not themselves "dieticians" but rather who are either zealous religious apologists or beligerent naysayers who lack real substance. Sometimes this literature passes itself off as "scholarly" when really at the heart of it all is New Age banter wrapped in a pseudo-scholarship, over-objective academicese, or atheist-agnostic musings on the evil of religion. The literature surveyed on this page is academic but it is not beyond the gaze of educated lay persons who want to become better informed. It is meant to equip the seeker with "ammunition" in order that the seeker may wade through all of the books dealing with alternative Jesus/early Christian narratives (e.g., The Urantia Book and Billy Meier's Talmud Jmmanuel) with a discernful eye and an informed conscience.
I am especially interested in giving the reader a brief survey of literature that pertains to spirits and spirit communication in the ancient world, in Greco-Roman antiquity, and in early Christianity; as well as literature pertaining to the development of doctrine and dogma as it relates to "the holy spirit." This is meant to show two things: 1) that spirit communication is neither unique to the New Age movement nor is it antithetical to Christianity; and 2) the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was a departure from the meaning of "holy spirit" in the New Testament and earliest Christianity (see Menu on this website). As you might know, many sceptics point to beliefs in spirits and a spirit world as something born out of a pre-critical, ancient age; an age before science. This establishes, for some, the notion that the existence of spirits is really not a reality independent of human belief, but is rather a reality created by a human belief in what is otherwise nonsense and a figment of ancient imaginations. This perspective among some scientists, however, is gradually becoming better informed. See in the Menu on this website "Scientific Evidence for a Spirit World and Life after Death."
Many New Agers and UFO devotees are very ill-informed on the Bible, the history it records, and its own textual history. The history of early Christianity and the history of the development of theological doctrines are areas that both New Agers and Christians also lack. The following books are worth looking into by the seeker.
Literacy in the Ancient World
William V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989).
Rosalind Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (Key Themes in Ancient History; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Allan Millard, Reading and Writing in the Time of Jesus (Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 2000).
Kim Haines-Eitzen, Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Michael Crawford, ed., Sources for Ancient History (The Sources of History: Studies in the Use of Historical Evidence; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
D. C. Greetham, Textual Scholarship: An Introduction (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1417; New York: Garland, 1994).
Roy Macleod, ed., The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005).
Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002).
Eward Alexander Parsons, The Alexandrian Library, Glory of the Hellenic World: Its Rise, Antiquities, and Destructions (London: Elsevier Press, 1952).
The Bible--The Old Testament
Karel van der Toorn, Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007).
William M. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
John Barton, How the Bible Came To Be (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1997).
Richard Elliot Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York, NY: Summit Books, 1987).
John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006).
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Lawrence Boadt, Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1984).
Karen H. Jobes and Moises Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2000).
James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
R. Timothy McLay, The Use of the Septuagint in New Testament Research (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
Early Judaism--So-Called "Inter-Testamental" Literature
James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985).
Florentino G. Martinez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1997).
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1992).
George W. E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005).
Peter W. Flint, The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape, and Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).
J. Julius Scott, Jr., Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995).
George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2004).
Bernard J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels: The Soldiers of Satan's Realm (New York, NY: Jewish Publication Society, 1952; repr. New York, NY: Barnes and Noble, 1995).
The Bible--The New Testament
Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (3rd enlarged revised edition; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2005).
G. R. Selby, Jesus, Aramaic and Greek (Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England: Brynmill, 1990).
Arthur G. Patzia, The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text, and Canon (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995).
E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition and Collection (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004).
Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (Anchor Bible Reference Library; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1997).
Raymond F. Collins, Introduction to the New Testament (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983).
Lee Martin McDonald and Stanley E. Porter, eds., Early Christianity and Its Sacred Literature (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004).
David C. Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Stephen Neill and Tom Wright, The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1986 (2nd ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Werner Georg Kummel, The New Testament: The History of the Investigation of its Problems (trans. S. MacLean Gilmour and Howard Clark Kee; Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1972).
Craig Blomber, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1987).
G. A. Wells, Can We Trust the New Testament? Thoughts on the Reliability of Early Christian Testimony (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2004).
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1991).
John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus Volume 1 (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1991).
Paul Rhodes Eddy and Gregory A. Boyd, The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007).
Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (trans. John Bowden; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1998).
Other Books of Interest
Ernest DeWitt Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh: The Usage of Pneuma, Psuche, and Sarx in Greek Writings and Translated Works from the Earliest Period to 180 A. D.; and of their Equivalents Ruach, Nephesh, and Basar in the Hebrew Old Testament (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1918).
Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Sources (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000).
Peter Schafter, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007).
H. L. Strack and Gunter Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (trans. and ed. Markus Bockmuehl, 2nd ed.; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1996).
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006).
Martin Hengel, Crucifixion: In the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross (trans. John Bowden; Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1977).
Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity (3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1971; repr. Mifflintown, PA: Sigler Press, 1996).
Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period (trans. John Bowden; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1991).
Ronald H. Nash, The Gospel and the Greeks: Did the New Testament Borrow from Pagan Thought? (2nd edition; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2003).
Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995).
Megan Hale Williams, The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998).
Graham H. Twelftree, In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007).
Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner, eds., Judaism in Late Antiquity, Part 4: Death, Life-After-Death, Resurrection and The World-to-Come in the Judaisms of Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 2000).
James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991).
Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed., The New Testament Apocrypha (2 vols.; Louisville, KY: Westminster, 2006).
J. W. Rogerson and Judith M. Lieu, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Stanley E. Porter and Richard S. Hess, eds., Translating the Bible: Problems and Prospects (London: T & T Clark, 1999).
Raymond E. Brown, 101 Questions and Answers on The Bible (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1990).
Leon E. Wright, Alterations of the Words of Jesus (Harvard Historical Monographs XXV; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952).
Stanley E. Porter, ed., Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. The Messiah in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).
Edgar J. Goodspeed, Modern Apocrypha (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1956).
Martin Jan Mulder and Harry Sysling, eds., Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004).
John Granger Cook, The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002).
Alan J. Hauser and Duane F. Watson, eds., A History of Biblical Interpretation: The Ancient Period (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik, eds., Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007).
Louis H. Feldman and Meyer Reinhold, eds., Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2000).
Matt Jackson-McCabe, Jewish Christianity Reconsidered: Rethinking Ancient Groups and Texts (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2007).
Claudia J. Setzer, Jewish Responses to Early Christians (Minneapolis, MI: Fortress, 1994).
Menahem Stern, ed., Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (3 vols.; Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1989).
Johannes Quasten, Patrology (3 volumes; Utrecht-Antwerp: Het Spectrum, 1950).
Jeffrey W. Hargis, Against the Christians: The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic (Patristic Studies vol. 1; New York: Peter Lang, 2001).
Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (2nd ed.; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).
R. Joseph Hoffman, ed. and trans., Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 1994).
R. Joseph Hoffman, trans., Celsus On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
John Barton, The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 2007).
Jacob Neusner, et al., Judaism and Their Messiahs at the Turn of the Christian Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The One Who is to Come (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007).
Steven L. McKenzie and Stephen R. Haynes, eds., To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and Their Application (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1999).
Larry W. Hurtado, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (second edition; Great Britain: T & T Clark, 2005).
Paul D. Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1999).
Graham Harvey, The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature (Leiden: Brill, 2001).
Alexander Roberts, et al., The Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 (10 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). Easily obtained from www.christianbookdistributors.com for under $90.00. Well worth the price for 10 volumes.
Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Second Series. 14 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994). Same as Ante-Nicene volumes for $150.
Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma (7 vols.; Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1903; repr. 4 vols.; New York: Dover, 1961).
William Whiston, trans., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (New Updated Version; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1987).
Charles Duke Yonge, The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged (New Updated Version; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006).
C. F. Cruse, Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History: Complete and Unabridged (New Updated Version; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998).
James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961; reprinted Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004).
John Sandys-Wunsch, What Have They Done to the Bible? A History of Biblical Interpretation (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005).
The Bible in English
David Daniell, The Bible in English: Its History and Influence (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).
Bruce M. Metzger, The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001).
John R. Kohlenberger, III, ed., The Precise Parallel New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Curtis Vaughan, ed., The Word: The Bible from 26 Translations (Gulfport, MS: Mathis Publishers, 1993).
John R. Kohlenberger, III, ed., The Parallel Apocrypha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).
The Development of Trinitarian Doctrine and Orthodoxy
Tarmo Toom, Classical Trinitarian Theology: A Textbook (London: T &T Clark, 2007).
J. Stevenson, ed., Creeds, Councils, and Controversies: Documents Illustrative of the history of the Church A.D. 337-461 (London: SPCK, 1966).
J. N. D. Kelly, The Athanasian Creed (London: A & C Black, 1964).
Michel Rene Barnes, "The Fourth Century as Trinitarian Canon," in Lewis Ayres and Gareth Jones, eds., Christian Origins: Theology, Rhetoric and Community (New York: Routledge, 1998) 47-67.
Frances M. Young, From Nicaea to Chalcedon: A Guide to the Literature and its Background (London: SCM, 1983).
Richard Hanson, "The Achievement of Orthodoxy in the Fourth Century AD," in Rowan Williams, ed., The Making of Orthodoxy: Essays in Honour of Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
N. Q. King, The Emperor Theodosius and the Establishment of Christianity (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1960).
S. L. Greenslade, Church and State from Constantine to Theodosius (London: SCM, 1954).
William Kenneth Boyd, The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code (New York: Columbia University Press, 1905).
William Bright, The Canons of the First Four General Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon: With Notes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892).
P. R. Coleman-Norton, Roman State and Christian Church: A Collection of Legal Documents to A. D. 535 (3 volumes; London: SPCK, 1966).
Charles Freeman, A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State (New York: Overlook Press, 2009).
Stuart Hall, Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991).
Stephen W. Need, Truly Divine and Truly Human: The Story of Christ and the Seven Ecumenical Councils (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge--Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008).
Edmund J. Fortman, The Triune God: A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1972).
R. P. C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy, 318-381 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005).
Franz Dunzl, A Brief History of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Early Church (trans. John Bowden; London: T & T Clark, 2007).
Donald K. McKim, Theological Turning Points: Major Issues in Christian Thought (Louisville, KY: Westminster, 1988).
Lewis Ayers, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Maurice Wiles, The Making of Christian Doctrine: A Study in the Principles of Early Doctrinal Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967).
Ramsay Macmullen, Voting About God in Early Church Councils (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006).
Richard E. Rubinstein, When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome (New York: Harcourt, 1999).
The Development of the Theology of the Deity of "the Holy Spirit"
Michael A. G. Haykin, The Spirit of God: The Exegesis of 1 and 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1994). Definitive.
Henry Barclay Swete, On the Early History of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit: With Especial Reference to the Controversies of the Fourth Century (London: George Bell, 1873).
Henry Barclay Swete, The Holy Spirit in the Ancient Church: A Study of the Christian Teaching in the age of the Fathers (New York: Macmillan, 1912; repr. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1996).
C. R. B. Shapland, The Letters of Saint Athanasius Concerning the Holy Spirit (London: Epworth, 1951).
David Anderson, trans., St. Basil the Great: On the Holy Spirit (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Press, 1980).
Gregory of Nazianzus, "On the Holy Spirit," in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Second Series in 14 volumes; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994) 7. 318-328.
Gregory of Nyssa, "On the Holy Spirit" and "On the Holy Trinity, and of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit" in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Second Series in 14 volumes; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994) 5. 315-325 and 5. 325-330.
'Spirit' and Spirit Communication in Antiquity and in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Hermann Gunkel, The Influence of the Holy Spirit (trans. Roy A. Harrisville and P. A. Quanbeck; Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1979).
Heinrich Weinel, Die Wirkungen des Geistes und der Geister im nachapostolischen Zeitalter bis auf Irenaus (Freiburg, Leibzig, Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1899). German only.
Eric R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951).
_____., The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature and Belief (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973).
_____., Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965).
Edward Langton, Good and Evil Spirits: A Study of the Jewish and Christian Doctrine, Its Origin and Development (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1942).
_____., Essentials of Demonology: A Study of Jewish and Christian Doctrine, Its Origin and Development (London: Epworth Press, 1949).
Christine Trevett, Montanism: Gender, Authority, and the New Prophecy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
William Tabbernee, Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments: Ecclesiastical and Imperial Reactions to Montanism (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 84; Leiden: Brill, 2007).
Michael H. Floyd and Robert D. Haak, eds., Prophets, Prophecy, and Prophetic Texts in Second Temple Judaism (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 427; London: T & T Clark, 2006).
John R. Levison, The Spirit in First Century Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 1997).
Christopher Forbes, Prophecy and Inspired Speech in Early Christianity and its Hellenistic Environment (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997).
David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983).
Jannes Reiling, Hermas and Christian Prophecy: A Study of the Eleventh Mandate (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 37; Leiden: Brill, 1973).
Johannes Lindblom, Propechy in Ancient Israel (Philadelphai, PA: Fortress, 1962).
Robert Flaceliere, Greek Oracles (trans. Douglas Garman; New York: W. W. Norton, 1965).
Hugh Bowden, Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Robert R. Menzies, The Development of Early Christian Pneumatology with special reference to Luke-Acts (JSNTSS 54; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991).
Robert R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1980).
R. Birch Hoyle, The Holy Spirit in St. Paul (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1928).
William R. Halliday, Greek Divination: A Study of its Methods and Principles (Chicago: Argonaut, 1967; repr. of 1913 ed.).
T. Witton Davies, Magic, Divination, and Demonology Among the Hebrews and their Neighbors (London: J. Clarke, 1898; repr. New York: KTAV, 1969).
Ann Jeffers, Magic and Divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria (SHCANE 8; Leiden: Brill, 1996).
W. O. E. Oesterley, Immortality and the Unseen World: A Study in Old Testament Religion (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921).
Moshe Sluhovsky, Believe Not Every Spirit: Possession, Mysticism, and Discernment in Early Modern Catholicism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
Nancy Caciola, Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003).
J. H. Chajes, Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).
Clint Tibbs, Religious Experience of the Pneuma: Communication with the Spirit World in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 (WUNT 2/230; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007).
[Work in progress]