Pieter F. Craffert is Professor of New Testament and Chair of the Department of New Testament at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. His other published works include Meeting the Living among the Dead, Mediating Divine Power, and Illness and Healing in the Biblical World.

• List of DiagramsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1: A Paradigm Shift in Historical Jesus Historiography1. Historiography beyond Positivism and Postmodernism2. An Analysis of Current Historical Jesus Research3. A New Road for Historical Jesus Research: Cultural Bundubashing4. In the Beginning Was a Social Personage and Cultural ArtifactsPart 2: A Model of Shamanic Figures5. The Shamanic Complex: A Social-Type Model6. Components of a First-Century (Shamanic) Worldview7. The Shamanic Complex and Ancient SocietiesPart 3: Jesus and the Shamanic Complex8. Baptism and Spirit-Possession Experiences9. Healing, Exorcism, and the Control of Spirits10. Teaching, Preaching, and Prophetic Activities11. Constituting a Galilean Shamanic Figure by Means of Infancy Narratives12. Afterlife for Someone Like a Galilean Shamanic FigureConclusion: Someone Like a Galilean Shamanic Figure?AbbreviationsBibliography