I have recently finished reading the book, “The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective”, written by Pieter Craffert. Unfortunately I could not attend a discussion on it today in Pretoria (due to the responsibilities towards wife and our newborn baby) but had attended one last month at the NTSSA annual meeting where it was briefly discussed.
Overall I find Craffert’s approach quite convincing, well, at least most of it, barring that he falls short of explaining Jesus’ arrest, trial and execution, and other aspects as well (eg why he was believed to be Israel’s Messiah), which also was not the purpose of the book. The description below of the book is from memory and aims to give a brief overview of Craffert’s most salient arguments.
Craffert argues that historical Jesus scholars are trapped in the positivistic historiographical framework which basically points to the following: the real Jesus cannot be like the Jesus portrayed in the gospels. The real Jesus lies somewhere beneath the text and must be approached by identifying “authentic” material. Historical reconstructions are then based on these “authentic” materials. Craffert argues, however, that scholars must move away from their ontological monism, and accept that there are a plurality of worldviews, the first century Galilean context of Jesus notwithstanding. In this regard the historical Jesus lies within (not somewhere beneath) the text (something he also emphasised to me in a personal conversation). The gospels must be seen as cultural artifcats produced by a particular culture about a specific type of social personage. Using a cross-cultural approach this social personage can be understood, or better approached when appreciating the cultural context, quite different to that of the western world.
As a social personage, Craffert argues that the best model that fits Jesus is the shamanic complex. Shamans (and related spiritual experts) regularly enter ASC’s (altered states of consciousness) which translates into healing and new wisdom/knowledge for their communities. Craffert sees Jesus baptism and the transformation on the mountain as ASC’s, for example. Also like shamans, Jesus was “possessed” by a spirit, but in this case it was claimed to be the Holy Spirit. He also sees that Jesus’ regular visits to the divine world explains the language of Jesus as “Son of God” and the “Son of Man”.
Also Jesus’ healing must be seen within its context. Craffert, and here much controversy will ensue, argues that Jesus healing was aimed at culturally conditioned illnesses . Jesus’ reputation as a healer spread and performed “biopsychosocial” healing , where illness and cure was determined as much by people’s beliefs and the social/cultural environment as belief in the healer (similar to the placebo effect). If believing in something can make you ill, believing in a doctor or a pill, much like a healer will also affect healing. I just wonder whether biopsychosocial healing can explain all the healing accounts in the gospels.
Craffert also argues that the birth narratives would have taken shape already in Jesus’ lifetime, due to his reputation, and were not later legendary material added to the tradition. The resurrection appearances can also be explained in terms of ASC’s of his followers. They continued in what was already ocurring before Jesus’ death - this argument I do not find convincing in all cases.
What Craffert’s book does is to open a world very different to that of the westerner and to appreciate the otherness of Jesus, his person and his social and cultural world. The challenge for historical Jesus scholars is to follow in the footsteps of Craffert and thoroughly take their investigations into this alien world and to reconstruct Jesus as part of that world, and not their own. The other challenge remaining would be to translate that Jesus for contemporary relevance, so that Jesus is not merely a Galilean Shaman that lived in the first century, but a Lord who is understandable and also lives in our world today.
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