Miracle and Magic: A Study in the Acts of the Apostles and the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, by Andy M. Reimer. JSNTSup 235. London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Pp. xviii + 277. $110.00. In recent years, a number of books have appeared that attempt to define or understand "magic" in the ancient world. These books tend to fall into two distinct camps, those that accept ancient descriptions of "magicians" and "sorceresses" as evidence upon which to construct a social history of magic, and those that reject understanding magic as a practice and argue instead that "magic" existed entirely as a polemical accusation: no one actually practiced magic, they were only accused of it. Andy Reimer's revised dissertation attempts to negotiate a middle course through this debate.
