This article offers an introduction to the study of magic in early Christian literature. In the first part of the article, I discuss the types of evidence scholars of early Christian texts often use to “reconstruct” ancient magic, as well as the methodological problems associated with these scholarly reconstructions. In the second part, I argue for the rehabilitating “magic” as a critical category in the study of early Christian literature despite the problems outlined throughout this article. Ultimately, I claim that the modern conceptual baggage associated with magic has resistive potential in undermining dominant historiographical narratives of how Christianity developed as something wholly distinct from magic.

中文翻译：

---

早期基督教文学研究中修复“魔法”的注意事项

本文介绍了早期基督教文学中的魔法研究。在文章的第一部分，我讨论了早期基督教文本中学者经常用来“重建”古代魔法的证据类型，以及与这些学术重建相关的方法论问题。在第二部分中，尽管本文概述了一些问题，但我主张将恢复“魔法”作为早期基督教文学研究中的一个关键类别。最后，我声称与魔法相关的现代概念包袱在破坏基督教如何发展为与魔法完全不同的主流历史叙事方面具有潜在的抵抗力。