Authors: Bengt Ankarloo (Editor), Stuart Clark
ISBN-13: 9780812217063, ISBN-10: 0812217063
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Date Published: October 1999
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Bengt Ankarloo is Professor of History at Lund University, Sweden. Stuart Clark is Professor of History at the University of Wales, Swansea.
Topics include the decline of the witchcraft trials and the role of witchcraft and magic in enlightenment, romantic, and liberal thought.
This series provides a scholarly survey of European belief in the supernatural. Using broad definitions of witchcraft and the supernatural, it provides a framework for inquiring into the supernatural in Europe from ancient to modern times. Each volume is divided into sections, each of which was written by a prominent scholar in that field. The first volume looks at the practices resulting in a belief in sorcery and witchcraft in Greek and Roman times. Part 1 covers curses, spells, and voodoo dolls in ancient Greek and Rome; Part 2 offers a literary review of witches and sorcerers in classical literature; Part 3 analyzes the role of magic in the classical world; and Part 4 covers belief in demons in the classical world, early Christianity, and Judaism. The second volume covers the witch trials of the 18th and 19th century. Part 1 analyzes the general reasons for their decline; Part 2 discusses beliefs in witchcraft after the trials; and Part 3 discusses the trials' origins in Enlightenment, Romantic, and Liberal thought. The third volume discusses modern witchcraft. Part 1 describes the rise of modern pagan witchcraft; Part 2 looks at modern Satanism (thoroughly dispelling the myth of ritual abuse); and Part 3 analyzes more traditional practices of witchcraft in the 20th century including bewitchments and cursings, and looks into the future of such practices. These volumes provide an exceptional historical and social analysis of subject of enduring interest. All three are highly recommended for academic libraries.--Gail Wood, SUNY at Cortland Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Introduction | vii | |
Part 1 | The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions | 1 |
Introduction | 3 | |
Chapter 1 | General Reasons for the Decline in Prosecutions | 7 |
Judicial Scepticism and Procedural Caution | 7 | |
Changes in Witch-Beliefs | 33 | |
Religious Changes | 40 | |
Social and Economic Changes | 44 | |
Chapter 2 | Patterns and Dynamics of Decline: Five Case-Studies (France, England, Scotland, Germany -- Wurttemberg, Hungary) | 48 |
Chapter 3 | The End of Prosecutions | 74 |
The Process of Decriminalization | 74 | |
Judicial Effects of the Decline | 78 | |
Conclusion | 86 | |
Part 2 | Witchcraft After the Witch-Trials | 95 |
Introduction | 97 | |
Chapter 1 | From the Low Countries to France | 102 |
The Netherlands and the Enchanted World | 102 | |
Belgium: From Witch-trials to Witch-lynchings? | 113 | |
France: Witches, Priests and the Ambiguity of Unwitching | 117 | |
Chapter 2 | From the Mediterranean Countries to the British Isles, and Scandinavia | 129 |
The Mediterranean Countries: From the Inquisition with Love | 129 | |
The British Isles: Fairies and Witches, Fire and Water | 141 | |
Scandinavia: Divergent Gender Patterns | 151 | |
Chapter 3 | From Eastern and Central Europe to Germany and Switzerland | 157 |
Eastern and Central Europe: Witches, Vampires and more | 157 | |
Germany and the Devil | 162 | |
Switzerland: The End of the Journey | 173 | |
Conclusion: Cultures of Misfortune: Towards a Disenchanted Europe? | 175 | |
Part 3 | Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment, Romantic and Liberal Thought | 191 |
Chapter 1 | Controversy c. 1680-1800 | 193 |
Introduction | 193 | |
The Decline of Witch Practices and Beliefs in England | 194 | |
Changing Mind-Sets: Religion, Philosophy and Science | 197 | |
Eighteenth-Century Witchcraft Debates | 199 | |
Challenges to Witch Beliefs and Practices on the Continent | 211 | |
Chapter 2 | The Enlightenment Crusade | 219 |
Introduction | 219 | |
Voltaire and the Philosophes | 219 | |
The Status of Superstition | 225 | |
The Role of Medicine | 226 | |
Conclusion | 235 | |
Chapter 3 | Culture and the Supernatural c. 1680-1800 | 237 |
Introduction | 237 | |
The Reformation of Popular Culture | 240 | |
Survival: Art and Literature | 245 | |
Rebirth: The Occult in the Secular World | 250 | |
Chapter 4 | The Disenchantment of the World in the Nineteenth Century | 255 |
Introduction: Pathologies of Superstition | 255 | |
The Grand Theory of Secularization | 263 | |
The Psychopathology of Witchcraft and Magic | 267 | |
The Return of the Repressed | 272 | |
Conclusion: Secularization | 274 | |
Bibliography | 283 | |
Index | 324 |