Magic Religion and Science a Special Issue

2022

The aim of this volume is to probe the complexities surrounding the idea of "magic" in the early modern period through the specific lens of materials. This collection draws inspiration from a set of papers presented as a double panel, titled "Magical Materials," at the Renaissance Society of America's Virtual Conference in the spring of 2021. The essays address magical materials from an interdisciplinary perspective with topics that draw upon learned and popular forms of philosophy, literature, and art. The authors touch on different geographic and linguistic fields (Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and the nascent European vernacular languages). By addressing specific examples of magical materials, the essays provide a glimpse into how philosophers, artists, playwrights, and everyday individuals in Europe made sense of the terrestrial/celestial, natural/supernatural, and legendary/real worlds of magic. The studies cross a large diachronic space, from the fourteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century, revealing the numerous faces of magic in this kaleidoscopic era.

I QUADERNI DEL RAMO D'ORO, vol. 10, 2018

Numen, 2013

Even though the concept of “magic” has sufffered severe criticism in academic discourse, the category continues to be used in many disciplines. During the last two decades, classicists in particular have engaged in a lively discussion over “magic” and have produced an impressive amount of written output. Given the impossibility of defijining “magic” in a consistent and widely accepted manner, one cannot help but wonder what these scholars are actually talking about. Hence this paper purports (a) to critically review the recent debate on “magic” in Classical Studies, (b) to advocate for abandoning an abstract category of “magic” in favour of a proper analysis of ancient sources and (c) to historicize the term “magic” in Antiquity, that is, to muse on its ancient semantics, functions, and contexts. This methodological approach does not only overcome the major problems inherent in modern definitions of “magic,” but will also yield new insights into terminologies, modes of thought and speech strategies that underlie ancient religious discourses.

Jewish Quarterly Review, 2009

ABSTRACT Albertus Magnus (1193?-1280), also known as doctor universalis, delved into several fields of science and philosophy, a pursuit which resulted in a massive production of works . Within these works, however, one discerns a provocative paradox, in which a cleric is involved in a forbidden art such as magic. In this paper I argue that a paradox of this kind can be justified and explicated in terms of philosophy. To this end, I advance three case studies which intend to shed light on the aforementioned problem. First, I will scrutinize the indirect and direct sources in order to set straight Albert’s relation to magic. Thus presenting whether it is possible to trace any supportive data that permits a connection between magic and philosophy. Subsequently, I will show that this connection is achievable since some parts of Albertus’s philosophy such as psychology, cosmology and the liberum arbitrium seem to be associated with magia naturalis in terms of astrology. Finally, I will argue why the German philosopher avoided to legitimize magic through philosophy and failed to prove himself a unique pioneer of an innovative knowledge. KEYWORDS Albertus Magnus, Magic, Astrology, Science, Philosophy.

eSharp Journal, 2020

The relationship between religion and magic holds a precarious position in history. One common understanding is that religion petitions while magic coerces. This understanding has seen magic stand diametrically opposed to religion, a viewpoint which appears to develop in the early centuries of the Christian era. The Christian tradition has often regarded narratives of spiritual ascent, particularly accounts of the practice known as theurgy, as controversial, particularly due to concerns that they might clash with Christin doctrine. The term theurgy (Greek θεουργία or theourgia), which appears to have originated in the Chaldaean Oracles, is a compound word which literally translates as 'god work'. It was adopted in late antiquity to differentiate between the ritual acts and practice, in contrast to theology, which can be literally translated as 'god speech' or speech about god. The act of contemplation has been viewed as orthodox by Christian thinkers, while acts of theurgy have generally been rejected as magic. This paper explores how ideas of spiritual ascent and theurgy found in the narratives of the ancient philosophers and Jewish Kabbalists can contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of the relationship between religion and magic and blur the boundaries of magic as defined by Renaissance mages such as Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and Giovanni della Mirandola (1463-1494). This paper explores the benefits the boundaries between religion and magic of setting a new definition for the practice of theurgy for our understanding by comparing this ancient practice with the ideas of Ficino and Pico.

Prestieesci Research Review, 2024

This study offers a novel approach to the study of religion's "critical categories," which is receiving greater attention: How can researchers handle flexible or polyvalent ideas that lack commonly agreed-upon conceptualizations and often elicit misconceptions or even intense disagreements over their correct use? Instead of unilaterally lowering the semantic depth of these categories by "definitions," the essay proposes recognizing polysemantic as a key characteristic or unavoidable aspect of many, if not every, essential category in the study of religion. Similarly, the study offers a new methodological tool called "polysemantic analysis," which has two parts: narrative analysis and intellectual reverse engineering that deconstruct a contested category into a semantic matrix, or "net of conceptions," which can then be used to analyses religious data. This method applies a polysemantic notion to religious data without losing its analytical usefulness, enabling more sophisticated and fine-grained analysis. The study applies such a method to "religious individualization," a process classification that has garnered increased academic interest. "Polysemantic analysis" shows a matrix with category conceptions in four domains. This "net of conceptions" is then used to "magic" conceptual history, both polemical and positive. a number of certain ambiguities, the written text history of "Western taught magic" activates a broad variety of "religious induced cognitive" ideas and might serve as an especially notable example of these kinds of dynamics.

Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean

When does a prayer turn into a curse? What is the difference between pious worship and manipulative coercion? Who ultimately draws the boundaries between magic and religion? When we consider the various connotations of magic in the context of Greco-Roman culture before the Common Era, we are faced with a twofold conundrum. The concept of magic is constructed, on the one hand, from the often-biased depictions of what the ancient authors judged to be magic and, on the other hand, from the varied approaches that modern scholars have used to study Greco-Roman magic. Yet, even though we have ample evidence on ancient practices that were widely considered to be magic, these practitioners seldom left any commentaries on their work. In this chapter, I will outline the development of magic as a concept within both the Greco-Roman literature and the scholarship discussing ancient magic. I do not aim to describe any actual magical practices; instead, I will concentrate on the discourse on magicancient and modern. 1 First, I will briefly survey how the ancient concept of magic has been reconstructed in modern scholarship, and how it may have affected our understanding of the phenomenon. Second, I will consider various elements that Greco-Roman literati employed in crafting their definitions of magic. Any endeavor to describe, analyze, or understand the ancient concept of magic requires a working definition of what exactly is considered to be magic. As such, magic is a notoriously elusive concept which is often talked about, but which seldom has clear definitions or unambiguous content that all parties would agree on. Some regard magic as a substantial phenomenon that has certain modi operandi, actual operational powerswhether they work for good or for badand tangible effects, while others use magic as a discursive concept that classifies and labels various practices. Therefore, it is important to clarify whose ideas of magic are being considered: are they those of ancient practitioners of 'magic,' for instance, people employing potions and spells for their own use or professionals offering their services for a fee, or those of educated literati, who often employed the term magic in a deprecatory sense? Or, are they perhaps those of modern scholars attempting to define magic from the perspective of their own cultural background? Furthermore, one needs to keep in mind that these ancient and modern contexts for definitions vary in different places and different times. Therefore, before surveying Greek and Roman views on magic, we need to consider how the etic perspective on ancient magic, that is, our modern concepts of magic which are projected on the 1 See Gordon and Simón 2010, 5. 2 ancient sources, have developed and shaped our understanding of Greco-Roman magic in recent decades. Since ancient testimonia show that magic involved evocation, utilization, and even manipulation of superhuman 2 powers, a logical starting point for many scholarly constructions of magic has been its relationship to and distinction from religion. Perhaps the most influential scholars in this respect have been the two pioneers of anthropology, Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer. They were both advocates of the nineteenth century ideas of cultural evolution, which led them to assign the practice of magic to less developed stages of societies. Tylor considered that all societies passed from savagery to barbarism and finally to a civilized state: and, in his view, magic belonged to the less educated and more primitive levels of development. 3 Yet, evolution is not linear, and just as civilized societies can lapse back into more primitive forms of spiritualism, they have also preserved survivals of past ways through "stupidity and unpractical conservatism and dogged superstition." 4 On the other hand, Tylor noted that all communities tend to associate magic with other groups that they consider more savage than themselves, 5 which foreshadows the contemporary view on magic as an othering device. Tylor mainly viewed magic as a psychological tool that provided its practitioners with authority and prestige; when magic seemingly works, it is by pure chance or because of natural causes, while the magicians are skilled in finding excuses for their failures. Yet, Tylor does not label those practicing magic as impostors, since they rely on complex pseudo-scientific explanatory systems that are transmitted among fellow professionals. 6 The opposing lines that Tylor draws between magic, religion (or "animism" as he calls it), and science are even more clearly presented in the evolutionary scheme of his follower, Sir James George Frazer. For Frazer, magic represents the lowest stage of cultural development, which will be replaced by religion and which will, in turn, give way to science. He believed this progress to be universal, so that the intellectually more primitive stage of magic use has preceded the development of religion in different cultures, even though they can still coexist. 7 In his magnum opus, The Golden Bough, Frazer delineates the crucial differences between magic, religion, and science. While magic and science share the idea of a predictable world where the succession from one thing to a certain effect is fixed, magic essentially misperceives the laws that govern this succession. Thus, magic is fundamentally fallacious. On the other hand, magic and religion share the belief in superhuman force that either 2 To use the term "supernatural" would violate ancient understanding of natural world.