The text refers to a πνεῦμα πύθωνα (pneuma pythona) which is translated in the NSRV as a “spirit of divination”. This is a reference to “the Python” which was a mythical monster slain by Apollo, and which became used firstly as the title of a famous oracle of Apollo, and then as a general name for any oracle or divination. Such spirits are of course consistent with the monotheist late Jewish and early Christian cosmology of various spirits, both good and bad, existing under the sole divinity and sovereignty of God. These spirits were not considered to be gods but intermediary beings existing in, and moving through, the spaces between the heavens and the earth. In terms of Christian practice, the incident occurred not in a Christian community, but in Philippi, explicitely described in the text as a Roman colony and the men offended by Paul’s exorcism of the spirit explicitely describe themselves as Romans in their statement to the magistrate, and Paul and hid companions as Jews. It doesn’t appear that this was a Chrustian practice but a pagan Roman practice.