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Paul, James, and later, nonbiblicalwriters in the first two centuries. He closes this sec-
tion, the last major one of the book, with suggestions about the social significance of
healing and exorcism in early Christianityin comparison with contemporary miracles
and healings being performed by professional ("scientific"or "rational")doctors, Ascle-
pian sanctuaries, magicians, and popular, "folk"healers. The book concludes with Koll-
mann's advice that moder scholars be more careful about their own prejudices, both
those inherited from the Enlightenment as well as those from Protestantismin general,
that have tended to ignore or underestimate the importance of miraculoushealings and
exorcisms for the historyof early Christianity.
Although different in details from the practices of various other healers in antiq-
uity, Christian healings and exorcisms played very important roles in the daily life of
early Christian communities. From the beginning, in the ministry of Jesus himself,
through at least the first two centuries of Christianity,miracles were seen by Christians
and non-Christians alike as constituting an indispensable aspect of early Christian life
and especially its "missions strategy." (Notably missing is any mention of Ramsay
MacMullen's Christianizingthe RomanEmpire [1984], which famouslyproposed a sim-
ilar thesis.) Healing in Christianitywas unique in some ways. According to Kollmann,
scholars have overemphasized the practice of healing for free in the ancient world, that
is, without financial remuneration.The availableevidence suggests that almost all heal-
ing, whether that of Hippocratic-styledoctors, magicians,market-placepharmacists,or
sanctuaries,cost money, often much money. Most Christianhealers, on the other hand,
healed without charge. According to Kollmann, this was possible for them because, as
"wanderingcharismatics,"they could depend on the support of local Christiancongre-
gations. This healing free of charge, though, constituted also a self-conscious missionary
strategy. And it worked. In its heavy competition-with all healers and especially the
powerhouses like the god Asclepius-Christianity gained an advantageby being able to
claim that it healed without financialmotives.
The strengths of Kollmann'sbook lie in its thoroughness and encyclopedic scope.
Its weaknesses consist of its ratheruncriticalacceptance of traditionalmethods of inter-
pretation and lack of historiographicalor theoretical innovation(straightforwardhistory-
of-religions methods with no interest in the sorts of"cultural studies"or anthropological
questions that many North Americanscholarswill bring to the material,such as connec-
tions of healing practices to different structuresof knowledge, world-formation,power,
or ideology). Nonetheless, Jesus und die Christen als Wundertiter is an important and
impressive book and makes a significantcontributionto the study of healing, magic, and
miracle in ancient Christianity.
Dale B. Martin,Duke University,Durham, NC 27708