Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time, the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas' classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of English society begins with the collapse of the medieval Church and ends with the changing intellectual atmosphere around 1700, when science and rationalism began to challenge the older systems of belief.
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About the Author
Keith Thomas is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was formerly President of Corpus Christi College and, before that, Professor of Modern History and Fellow of St John's College. RELIGION AND DECLINE OF MAGIC, his first book, won one of the two Wolfson Literary Awards for History in 1972. He was knighted in 1988 for services to the study of history.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must read to understand religion and magic in England,
By
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This review is from: Religion and the Decline of Magic (Penguin History) (Mass Market Paperback)
Thirty-five years ago Keith Thomas made a considerable contribution to the historical literature on religion and magic in England from the medieval period to around 1700. Whether or not one agrees with all of his conclusions, historians today can no longer treat these topics without reference to Thomas. Thomas's central argument revolves around the shifting interactions between religion and magic and the emergent rationalism that displaced magic and tempered religious belief. However, no authority or sectarian group completely purged magic from English religious or popular beliefs.
The vast majority of the book focuses on the epic battle waged between religion and magic. Thomas recounts attempts by the medieval Church in England to control the blurred line between religion and magic. The medieval Church's accommodation with magic gave it the image of possessing "a vast reservoir of magical power." (p. 51) He argues with persuasion that Church officials fought against magic with one hand, while accommodating--perhaps exploiting--magic with the other. Thomas details with vigor Protestant attempts to stamp out magic. The Reformers' opposition to magic was proportional to their degree of antagonism toward the medieval Church. The Anglicans' affinity for Catholic ritual left room for magic. Conversely, Protestants attacked Catholicism just as ardently as they assaulted magic. They relegated sacraments, demystified clerical powers, and eliminated popular festivals. Protestant efforts not only chipped away at magic's appeal; they also created a new concept of religion: one centered on faith rather than practices (p.88)--a feat whose significance was not lost on Thomas. Despite clerical efforts to eradicate it, magic persisted as people continued to seek answers to existential questions, such as sickness and prosperity, beyond Providence. After the Anglicans rejected Catholic paraphernalia for exorcisms and the Protestants eliminated the mechanical efficacy of rituals , only prayer remained as a viable remedy. According to Thomas, "it is no small wonder that the sorcerer's claim...proved more attractive than stern clerical insistence that all must be left" to God. (p. 314) He notes that the absence of protective ecclesiastical magic led to an increase in the number of witch prosecutions. (p. 594, 595) He also suggests that as societal tensions increased between communal generosity and individualism, witchcraft "helped to uphold the traditional obligations of charity and neighborliness." (p. 674) In the final analysis, however, Thomas concludes that "it was the general social importance of religion [not any tangible spiritual value] which enabled it to outlive magic." (p. 766) The battles between the two "practices" left them both bloodied, with rationalism as the real winner. Or as Thomas puts it, "when the Devil was banished to Hell, God himself was confined to working through natural causes." (p. 765) Neither religion nor magic has held primacy in shaping thought since the advent of mechanical philosophy. An alternate title for the book could be Religion, the Decline of Magic, and the Rise of Rationalism. Thomas advances the current understanding of the interaction of religion, magic, and socio-economic changes through the combination of documentary research and social scientific analysis. He marshals a wealth of primary sources. However, he leans at times on Protestant clergy like Hugh Latimer (p. 51) for medieval Church descriptions and he drafts the magical sections using dismissive sceptic writers like Reginald Scot (p. 624). Thomas's method and detachment falter in certain areas. The extent to which religion reduced magic's hold on the English population remains elusive after 853 pages. Comparing medieval and post-Reformation practitioners and clients of religion and magic could have provided benchmarks by which to assess magic's decline. The lack of some quantitative measure diminished the work's evaluative value. Despite his caveat that it would "be a gross travesty to suggest that the medieval Church deliberately held out to the laity an organized system of magic" (p. 52), Thomas proposed that Church leaders did not "discourage attitudes which might foster popular devotion. If a belief in the magical efficacy of the Host served to make the laity more regular church-goers, then why should it not be tacitly tolerated?" (p. 56) He dismissed Christian prayer as thief-magic, a psychological process that "helped the client know his own mind and gave him the resolution to act accordingly." (p. 138) By the end of the book it is difficult to understand if phrases as "primitive beliefs" (p. 774) refer to magic, religion, or both. Nevertheless, Religion and the Decline of Magic is so well crafted and its ambition so admirable that the limitations of its method and sourcing do not reduce its utility.
23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Powerful and Well-documented History Magic and Religion,
By Wanderer (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Religion and the Decline of Magic (Penguin History) (Mass Market Paperback)
Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.
So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a fascinating book. In this review, I have just noted the general theme. Thanks "Religion and the Decline of Magic" is full of insights that help us understand the appeal of magic and our intellectual heritage. Why isn't magic as popular today as religion? What happened? In his massive study, Keith Thomas says of the occult beliefs in astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts, and fairies that: "In offering an explanation for misfortune, and a means of redress at times of adversity, they seemed to be discharging a role very close to that of the established Church and its rivals. Sometimes they were parasitic upon Christian teaching; sometimes they were in sharp rivalry to it." I won't attempt a detailed review, but this book is highly recommended as background for the emergence of Mormonism (not the subject of Thomas' book, however). But Joseph Smith's claims clearly had a genealogy going back to 16th century Europe. Paul Slack in "History Today" (1981) said: "Few historians have that ability to surprise and convince with unfailing regularity, to say something absolutely original and make it seem self-evident. That is why "Religion and the Decline of Magic" remains a commanding work, one of the three or four outstanding pieces of historical writing to have appeared in the last thirty years." For a detailed review, read the other reviewer's excellent posting. I would only add that Thomas' book should have been given five stars. What a praiseworthy work of scholarship!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complementary readings to this gem,
By
This review is from: Religion and the Decline of Magic (Paperback)
There are already several fine reviews, so I will only suggest reading the following works (all of them sound anthropology, good to understand ourselves) in addition to this masterful book: a) "Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints: A Prehistory of Religion" by Brian Hayden (great overview of religion origins and development); b) "Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath" by Carlo Ginzburg (it delivers more that its title promises); and c) "When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth" by Paul and Elizabeth Barber (myths lest we forget natural disasters).
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