Religion And The Decline Of Magic By Thomas Keith

In the introduction of the book Magic in the Middle Ages chapter, one emphasizes the definition of magic. During the medieval era, Europeans believed that there were two types of magic, which were called natural and demonic. As natural magic was considered to have a correlation with science as the Wolfsthurn handbook illustrated the usage of a combination of herbs and magic in conjunction. For example, using herbs to treat an illness with the addition of reciting specific words was deemed as natural magic. On the other hand, demonic magic was not thought to be a form of science but was a perverted depiction of religion. That demonic magic’s power source was from demons and that words that could not be interpreted were thought to be demon names. In addition, treatments that involved animal skin from the Wolfsthurn book would be considered demonic magic as it was suggested that it was a ceremonial sacrifice to demons.

Carlo Ginzburg’s Night Battles depicts the relationships that existed concerning magic and the use of witchcraft as they where believed by both the popular and the elite concerning the benandanti in the Italian area of Friuli. Keith Thomas’ Religion and the Decline of Magic does a similar thing except his subject area is in the whole of England and includes more information and examples of the beliefs and practices of the English. Both the English account and the account of the Friuli benandanti have several similarities that exist between the two as well as some distinct differences. The differences between the two groups are shown by the way

A letter rebuking Otto Synboden of Ameneburg, a priest in the diocese of Mainz, perfectly explains how magic came to be viewed in the fifteenth century. The letter consists of Boniface IX, scolding a priest who used magic to determine the identity of a thief. Once Otto was out of sight, the individual who had been robbed confronted the accused and killed him.8 Although Otto’s intentions were not in contrast with the church, he was still held accountable for invoking a demon for knowledge and for not foreseeing the devil prompting the men to murder. It was the power behind the action that made the act heretical. The result proved that regardless of his intent the source was demonic and nothing holy, exemplifying that all magic regardless of

After the Christian conquest across Europe during the medieval period other beliefs were restricted. This period was very authoritarian but later the Renaissance unlocked opportunities to the imagination and the idea of supernatural started to bloom. Although, the supernatural is sometime mistaken with the gods of certain religions, believing in ghosts and witches was independent from the people chosen religion. The question of the existence of the supernatural, or something bigger than us, in 16th century Europe focused mainly on God from the Christian perspective. During this time other supernatural characters were brought to light, affecting the politics of the monarchies as it did during the rule of King James I in England.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, rationality through reason and logic was presented by the thoughts and writings of philosophers such as Descartes and Locke. This influenced the ways in which people in the west obtained objective truths and the western world became dominated by scientific thought. It was during this period in western history that non-secular forces and powers became less dominant and lost some authority over the actions of monarchies, governments and civilians. With rational thought altering the way people thought about religion, it is no wonder that witchcraft in England was demoted to myth and legend, or tales of folly from times where we did not know better; under this new system of thought, anything unexplainable was deemed invalid. Throughout the 19th century in the peak of British colonialism, in western culture, it was considered a Gentleman’s duty to educate and civilise those who were less fortunate. The pursuit of unilineal cultural evolution in the form of western colonialism came from the concept of psychic unity, the idea that all people must have similar mental abilities (Harkin, 2017). It is why the question around witchcraft and rationality and its trepidatious link to psychic unity and colonial ‘primitive mentality’ (Levi-Bruhl, 1926) is still so markedly debated. To understand if witchcraft is rational, we must look to understand the cultural and social systems of those who practice it. Using Evans-Pritchard’s research on the Azande to

In medieval Europe, religion was an important facet of life. It was vital that people belonged to a faith and worshipped. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, the Christian church began seeing people as worshipping incorrectly or worshipping things other than God. The Church, seeing this as superstition, decided to take action. Why was the Church so concerned over what they considered superstition, and how did it affect the people living during this time? During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Christian authorities grew increasingly concerned over superstition due to a fear of demons and worry that it would corrupt Christian society, which overall decreased the spiritual quality of life.

The Roman Catholic Church played a big role as the center of knowledge during these times. This period in time has influenced modern society. Even though the Middle Ages were noticed as the “Dark Ages” or the “Golden Age of Europe,” the “Age of Faith”

In his article “The Anatomy of Religion”, Anthony Wallace discussed how certain behavior can be considered as religious behavior. In this article, he named thirteen different behavior that are religious. While not all the thirteen behavior are going to be observed in every religion, but it is certain that many of them will be observed in every religion. It is also important to note that some of these behaviors are more obvious in certain religions. For example, one of the behavior is sacrifice. This behavior can be observed differently in Christianity and voodoo; in voodoo people sacrifice goats or chickens while Christians gives offerings at church.

Superstitions have influenced the lives of human beings perhaps since the beginning of mankind. For millennia, people have clung to beliefs and practices surrounding preternatural activities. Even after science has produced evidence to explain what was once considered supernatural, the superstitious traditions have continued. During the Middle Ages, many new superstitious rituals were developed and some can still be seen in use today. However, the trivial superstitious rituals of today, such as hanging a horse shoe on a door or knocking on wood to bring good fortune, did not begin so simply.

Based off of Aquinas work, Summa Contra Gentiles, one would assume that he did believe in magic, although he did not come outright and say it. Nevertheless, he informed his readers that magicians performed their magic not just through God and heavenly ways, but also through celestial ways. They may not have performed their magic with just God’s powers help, yet they would not have been able to perform with only celestial ways either, they came together hand in hand. However, he explained that magic that came from the “heavenly bodies” was natural magic. Therefore, anything that could not be considered natural could not have come from heaven or God. He also went into greater detail explaining that an inanimate object could not possibly move by itself through the powers of God or heavenly forces.

Supernatural explanations were the most acceptable form of explanation used during Early Modern Europe. Religion was the underline foundation for supernatural explanations. Science had not yet replaced the supernatural when explaining the unknown at the time. However, their lack of scientific methodology would not steer them away from beginning to use more natural explanations instead of supernatural ones. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there was a turning point where supernatural explanations were abandoned, and then replaced with more natural explanations.

Throughout the age of history, there have been numerous sightings of different, miraculous wonders that have impacted a great amount of common folk during the middle ages. Some amazing wonders have been expressed through song, book, theater, and even poetry. These legends give off hope and mysterious endeavors. However, these enchanted wonders can cause great harm in terms of greed and malice. One inspirational impact, The Holy Grail, shows that history can influence through different cultures; it can also have significance through religion; and inherently sustain hope and truth through history.

Magic was also viewed as a way of disorganizing and inverted divine contrariness of the world. This contrariness, such as wisdom over foolishness, was argued to have kept the world in order and out of chaos. This contrariness also allowed man to know what was good and what was evil, without it men would be confused and further invert the world until chaos reigned.15 This is also why the majority of discourse concerning witchcraft was used to establish and condemn the properties that would be in a disordered world.16 So while Otto should have upheld the law to not invoke demons and as a priest be morally upright and show others the proper behavior, he inverted and used magic, which resulted in unforeseen chaos. This order was essential to the

Following the introduction of Weber’s work, we can turn to the work of Keith Thomas and his book ‘Religion and the Decline of Magic’. Although very different when directly compared to Weber’s ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’, it is undoubtedly a fundamental reading when exploring the disenchantment of Europe. Putting Thomas’s whole book into perspective, the overall argument he puts forward is that the belief in magic once served a purpose in society, but as changes in religion and progression in science came about, the need for magic became less imperative to the individual. For Thomas, magic was a part of the accepted world view of the time and therefore part of normal medieval life. What makes Thomas’s text so informative

Religion in the Middle Ages takes on a character all of its own as it is lived out differently in the lives of medieval men and women spanning from ordinary laity to vehement devotees. Though it is difficult to identify what the average faith consists of in the Middle Ages, the life told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts.