Witchcraft, Demonology and Magic
Montesano, Marina
Witchcraft, Demonology and Magic - MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2020 - 1 electronic resource (160 p.)
Open Access
Witchcraft and magic are topics of enduring interest for many reasons. The main one lies in their extraordinary interdisciplinarity: anthropologists, folklorists, historians, and more have contributed to build a body of work of extreme variety and consistence. Of course, this also means that the subjects themselves are not easy to assess. In a very general way, we can define witchcraft as a supernatural means to cause harm, death, or misfortune, while magic also belongs to the field of supernatural, or at least esoteric knowledge, but can be used to less dangerous effects (e.g., divination and astrology). In Western civilization, however, the witch hunt has set a very peculiar perspective in which diabolical witchcraft, the invention of the Sabbat, the persecution of many thousands of (mostly) female and (sometimes) male presumed witches gave way to a phenomenon that is fundamentally different from traditional witchcraft. This Special Issue of Religions dedicated to Witchcraft, Demonology, and Magic features nine articles that deal with four different regions of Europe (England, Germany, Hungary, and Italy) between Late Medieval and Modern times in different contexts and social milieus. Far from pretending to offer a complete picture, they focus on some topics that are central to the research in those fields and fit well in the current “cumulative concept of Western witchcraft” that rules out all mono-causality theories, investigating a plurality of causes.
Creative Commons
English
books978-3-03928-960-8 9783039289592 9783039289608
10.3390/books978-3-03928-960-8 doi
magic n/a divination religious history Thomas Hobbes Bavaria classical culture folklore Catholic reform dissolution of the monasteries animals Franciscan and Dominican friars Early Modern History friars demonic possession Trier Adriaan Koerbagh gynecology biblical exegesis Franconia monasticism witch-hunting in Hungary exorcism Italy convent cases Germany monks popular belief ritual magic Inquisition devil media counter-reformation inquisition Holy Office English reformation witch trials spells France witchcraft popular/vernacular magic in Hungary witchcraft and sorcery in Hungary Witchcraft familiars counter-reformation Italy treasure hunting heresy medicine priests love magic Spain Protestant demonology sorcery superstition witch-hunting in Debrecen/Bihar county Calvinist demonology in Hungary Jesuits censorship witch-hunts demonology
Witchcraft, Demonology and Magic - MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2020 - 1 electronic resource (160 p.)
Open Access
Witchcraft and magic are topics of enduring interest for many reasons. The main one lies in their extraordinary interdisciplinarity: anthropologists, folklorists, historians, and more have contributed to build a body of work of extreme variety and consistence. Of course, this also means that the subjects themselves are not easy to assess. In a very general way, we can define witchcraft as a supernatural means to cause harm, death, or misfortune, while magic also belongs to the field of supernatural, or at least esoteric knowledge, but can be used to less dangerous effects (e.g., divination and astrology). In Western civilization, however, the witch hunt has set a very peculiar perspective in which diabolical witchcraft, the invention of the Sabbat, the persecution of many thousands of (mostly) female and (sometimes) male presumed witches gave way to a phenomenon that is fundamentally different from traditional witchcraft. This Special Issue of Religions dedicated to Witchcraft, Demonology, and Magic features nine articles that deal with four different regions of Europe (England, Germany, Hungary, and Italy) between Late Medieval and Modern times in different contexts and social milieus. Far from pretending to offer a complete picture, they focus on some topics that are central to the research in those fields and fit well in the current “cumulative concept of Western witchcraft” that rules out all mono-causality theories, investigating a plurality of causes.
Creative Commons
English
books978-3-03928-960-8 9783039289592 9783039289608
10.3390/books978-3-03928-960-8 doi
magic n/a divination religious history Thomas Hobbes Bavaria classical culture folklore Catholic reform dissolution of the monasteries animals Franciscan and Dominican friars Early Modern History friars demonic possession Trier Adriaan Koerbagh gynecology biblical exegesis Franconia monasticism witch-hunting in Hungary exorcism Italy convent cases Germany monks popular belief ritual magic Inquisition devil media counter-reformation inquisition Holy Office English reformation witch trials spells France witchcraft popular/vernacular magic in Hungary witchcraft and sorcery in Hungary Witchcraft familiars counter-reformation Italy treasure hunting heresy medicine priests love magic Spain Protestant demonology sorcery superstition witch-hunting in Debrecen/Bihar county Calvinist demonology in Hungary Jesuits censorship witch-hunts demonology