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Bezig met laden... The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenmentdoor Michael Hunter
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A new history which overturns the received wisdom that science displaced magic in Enlightenment Britain. In early modern Britain, belief in prophecies, omens, ghosts, apparitions and fairies was commonplace. Among both educated and ordinary people the absolute existence of a spiritual world was taken for granted. Yet in the eighteenth century such certainties were swept away. Credit for this great change is usually given to science - and in particular to the scientists of the Royal Society. But is this justified? Michael Hunter argues that those pioneering the change in attitude were not scientists but freethinkers. While some scientists defended the reality of supernatural phenomena, these sceptical humanists drew on ancient authors to mount a critique both of orthodox religion and, by extension, of magic and other forms of superstition. Even if the religious heterodoxy of such men tarnished their reputation and postponed the general acceptance of anti-magical views, slowly change did come about. When it did, this owed less to the testing of magic than to the growth of confidence in a stable world in which magic no longer had a place. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)133.40942Philosophy and Psychology Parapsychology And Occultism Specific Topics Witchcraft - Sorcery Biography; History By Place EuropeLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (4.5)
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We're first introduced to John Wagstaffe, who is often overlooked in favor of Reginald Scot, but Wagstaffe's "The Question of Witchcraft Debated" (1669) is much more critical of superstition. Describing witchcraft as "ridiculous lies and fancies", it was shocking to Wagsteffe that so many women died to "absurd error." But to many, to doubt the Devil's powers was akin to atheism. The term, the author explains, emerges in this period, as a personal attack, often against free thinkers, or used in religious debate. However, to be irreligious isn't the same as being atheist.
Hunter then examines the Deists, with Anthony Collins and John Toland at the forefront. Deism, in short, "is the belief in the existence of a supreme creator being, who does not intervene in the universe." But according to Hunter, Deists, in their eagerness to combine "priestcraft" and magic, never really debate witchcraft separately. The opinions of Robert Boyle and Francis Hutchinson are reviewed as well. The former, a brilliant scientist but private believer in the supernatural, and the latter an Anglican minister but fervently against the belief in witchcraft. It's not an easy line to trace.
Hunter also busts the myth that the Royal Society had everything to do with the decline of magic. The works of Joseph Glanvill, John Webster and John Goad are put up for examination, but the truth is the Royal Society avoided an opinion. You'd think that the Society would've studied the Poltergeist of Tedworth or the Scottish Second Sight (studied privately by Boyle), popular topics at this time. In the end, the demonstration of fraud of the Tedworth case would be a bigger nail in magic's coffin than any Deist or skeptic. True, Enlightenment thinkers had as much trouble defining magic as they had defining their own beliefs. (