John J. Pilch Books

Focusing on religious ecstatic trance experiences and healing events in the Acts of the Apostles, this book employs insights from cultural anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, and medical anthropology to interpret these occurrences. It also analyzes Luke's continuous narrative from both literary and theological angles. The text argues that, regardless of one's stance on the factuality of these events, they resonate with the cultural context of a first-century Mediterranean audience.

Analyzes sixty-three subjects from the Bible from a cross-cultural perspective.

How are we to read and understand stories of Jesus healing the lame, deaf, blind, and those with a variety of other maladies? Pilch takes us beyond the historical and literary questions to examine the social questions of how the earliest followers of Jesus and ancient Judeans understood healing, what roles healers played, and the different emphases on healing among the gospels. In his comparative analysis, the author draws on the anthropology of the Mediterranean as well as the models employed by medical anthropologists to understand peasant societies and their health-care systems. Utilizes social-science models Features a complementary web-site with additional resources

Focusing on wellness as a holistic lifestyle, the book emphasizes the importance of experiencing God and making choices that enhance life’s purpose and pleasure. It encourages readers to pursue life-sustaining and enriching options, fostering self-esteem and personal growth. The journey involves a continual reassessment of values, aiming to deepen one's spiritual and religious beliefs, ultimately creating a meaningful and fulfilling existence.

Fourteen members of The Context Group honor Bruce J. Malina and his scholarship in this volume by following his consistent example of developing or using explicit social scientific models to interpret documents from the ancient Mediterranean world. Ordinary features of that cultural world such as gossip, reciprocity, a pervasive military presence, the power of women, and becoming a follower of Jesus stand out with greater clarity in the Bible when a reader understands the cultural matrix in which such social dynamics function.These essays reflect The Context Group's more than twenty years of collaborative experience in researching the cultural context of the Bible. New insights are built on the solidly established foundations of their earlier cross-cultural studies.Readers will find the individual essays enlightening and challenging. Taken as a whole they form a valuable resource and a stimulating and helpful aid to further study.