In this volume, David John McCollough offers a narratological, discourse analysis, and literary exegesis of texts in Paul and Luke-Acts, followed by interpretation with social anthropological approaches. The author challenges common assumptions about Paul, such as that Paul thought the spirit to be communicated through water baptism, or the notion that 'justification' was non-experiential and unrelated to ritual. He refutes the view that Luke was either incoherent or unconcerned or a poor editor of sources regarding early Christian initiation practices and questions the belief that water baptism was the cardinal initiation rite among early Christianities. He instead argues that spirit possession marked by dissociation and glossolalia was the cardinal initiation ritual for Pauline and Lukan communities.

Born 1971; PhD in New Testament at The London School of Theology; PhD in Theology at Durham University; has taught theology and religion in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom.