Genevieve Warwick of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute writes:

Voces mysticae, demons of illness: On Friday, 7 June, our guest in the Humanities Institute magic seminar is John G. Gager, William H. Danforth Professor of Religion at Princeton University, who will ask, 'Was Jesus a Purveyor of Spells?: The Role of Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in Ancient Mediterranean Culture'.

Gager is the author of Moses in Greco-Roman Paganism (1972), Kingdom and Community: The Social World of Early Christianity (1975), The Origins of Anti-Semitism (1983), and Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (1992), and is currently preparing a book-length study of St Paul. 'It is our conviction that magic, as a definable and consistent category of human experience, simply does not exist.' (Curse Tablets, p. 24).

7 June, 12 noon, 7 University Gardens, all welcome, lunch follows.

Those who would like to prepare for the talk may consult:

John G. Gager, 'Introduction', in Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World,
ed. by John G. Gager (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 3-41.
ON RESERVE GUL

Morton Smith, 'The Marks of a Magician', in Jesus the Magician
(Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1978), pp. 81-93.
ON RESERVE GUL

For more information:
www.gla.ac.uk/ahri
G.Warwick@arts.gla.ac.uk 0141-330-4139
A.Wygant@french.arts.gla.ac.uk 0141-330-4588

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First published: 5 June 2002