An Inventory of Fear The Witch: A History of Fear from Ancient Times to the Present, Ronald Hutton, Yale University Press, 2017 (ISBN 978-0-3002-2904-2), xv + 360 pp., hb 30 The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic, Owen Davies (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2017 (ISBN 978-0-19-960844-7), xiv + 314 pp., hb £25

A study of two recent contributions to the scholarship on witchcraft and magic uncovers an uncomfortable dilemma. On the one hand, authors argue that magical practices should now be interpreted on their own premises; on the other hand, attempts to take seriously the experience of magic are bracketed...

Descrizione completa

Salvato in:  
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autore principale: Kotva, Simone (Autore)
Tipo di documento: Elettronico Review
Lingua:Inglese
Verificare la disponibilità: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Pubblicazione: 2018
In: Reviews in religion and theology
Anno: 2018, Volume: 25, Fascicolo: 2, Pagine: 194-200
Recensione di:The Oxford illustrated history of witchcraft and magic (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2017) (Kotva, Simone)
Altre parole chiave:B Fear
B Ronald Hutton
B Magic
B Religione
B Anthropology
B Recensione
Accesso online: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Descrizione
Riepilogo:A study of two recent contributions to the scholarship on witchcraft and magic uncovers an uncomfortable dilemma. On the one hand, authors argue that magical practices should now be interpreted on their own premises; on the other hand, attempts to take seriously the experience of magic are bracketed and ‘disbelief’ in magic is encouraged. I argue that such disbelief affirms, ironically, the polarization between religion and magic which is the object of critique and arises from an unexamined fear, directed principally at religion and Christianity. When left unexamined, this fear of religion takes the place of the historically attested religious maligning of magic studied by contemporary scholars, and, it is proposed, results in discourses of violence that repeat, unwittingly, the very stereotypes which modern accounts of witchcraft and magic set out to eradicate.
ISSN:1467-9418
Comprende:Enthalten in: Reviews in religion and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/rirt.13207