Magick Matters

15.03.2021

“Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice” by Jonathan Seitz

Magick Matters

"In early modern Europe, ideas about nature, God, demons and occult forces were inextricably connected and much ink and blood was spilled in arguments over the characteristics and boundaries of nature and the supernatural. Seitz uses records of Inquisition witchcraft trials in Venice to uncover how individuals across society, from servants to aristocrats, understood these two fundamental categories. Others have examined this issue from the points of view of religious history, the history of science and medicine, or the history of witchcraft alone, but this work brings these sub-fields together to illuminate comprehensively the complex forces shaping early modern beliefs."...>>

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15.03.2021

“The Role of Women in the Church” by Charles C. Ryrie (2nd edition)

Magick Matters

"Out of print in recent years, this newly revised edition of Charles Ryrie's The Role of Women in the Church, featuring a new foreword by Dorothy Kelley Patterson, proves its ongoing relevance in addressing what is still a divisive issue at the forefront of Christendom: What can a woman do in the church of God? With clarity and depth, Ryrie recounts the status of women in ancient Greece and Rome. He looks at the significance of Mary as Christ's mother, the attitude of Jesus toward women, and at women as ministers to Jesus. There are Scripture based chapters on marriage, celibacy, and divorce as well as a woman's place in church life. The book's...>>

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15.03.2021

“Healing Dramas: Divination and Magic in Modern Puerto Rico” by Raquel Romberg

Magick Matters

"In this intimate ethnography, Raquel Romberg seeks to illuminate the performative significance of healing rituals and magic works, their embodied nature, and their effectiveness in transforming the states of participants by focusing on the visible, albeit mostly obscure, ways in which healing and magic rituals proceed. The questions posed by Romberg emerge directly from the particular pragmatics of Puerto Rican brujería (witch-healing), shaped by the eclecticism of its rituals, the heterogeneous character of its participants, and the heterodoxy of its moral economy. What, if any, is the role of belief in magic and healing rituals? How do past discourses on possession enter into the performative experience of ritual in the here and now? Where does...>>

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15.03.2021

“Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes” edited by Marcel Kuijsten

Magick Matters

"Does consciousness inevitably arise in any sufficiently complex brain? Although widely accepted, this view inherited from Darwin's theory of evolution is supported by surprisingly little evidence. Offering an alternate view of the history of the human mind, Julian Jaynes's ideas challenge our preconceptions of not only the origin of the modern mind, but the origin of gods and religion, the nature of mental illness, and the future potential of consciousness. The tremendous explanatory power of Jaynes's ideas force us to reevaluate much of what we thought we knew about human history. Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind both explains Julian Jaynes's theory and explores a wide range of related topics such as the ancient Dark...>>

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15.03.2021

“Seeking the Mystery: An Introduction to Pagan Theologies” by Christine Hoff Kraemer

Magick Matters

"Contemporary Paganism focuses on practice, often neglecting theology. Yet belief and practice are intertwined. As the religious movement continues to grow, so does the need for intellectual frameworks for practice and ways of approaching the controversial question of belief. In this book, Christine Hoff Kraemer asks central questions about the varieties of Pagan belief: Why is multiplicity so important to contemporary Pagan understanding of deities? How do Pagans experience divinity in nature? In what way can the human body be a sacred site? And what are "virtue ethics" for Pagans? With an estimated 1.2 million Pagans in the United States and significant numbers elsewhere, Seeking the Mystery is important for Pagan self-understanding and also for non-Pagans...>>

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