Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

"Astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts and fairies were all taken seriously by Englishmen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; they were an integral part of their attempt to understand their environment and seek protection against its uncertainties. In this detailed, scholarly, and immensely fascinating book, Keith Thomas analyses the thoughts and practices of an age when the supernatural was such a real and important part of man's lives. Magic, insists Mr Thomas, had its own practical utility, and was directly related to the religious and scientific assumptions of the time. To some extent the Protestant Reformation drove the magic out or religion, but religion was still regarded by many believers as a direct source of material relief and as a means of explaining otherwise inexplicable misfortune. Meanwhile, outside religion and to a certain extent in competition with it, magic continued to flourish, declining only towards the end of the seventeenth century. But it has not disappeared altogether, nor is it likely to: as Mr Thomas points out, 'If magic is defined as the employment of ineffective techniques to allay anxiety when effective ones are not available, then we must recognise that no society will ever be free from it'. At every point the author has tried to bring out the part played by these beliefs in the lives of ordinary people, and the book thus contains much of general human interest: glimpses of people distressed by blighted crops and sick children, and seeking explanations in stars, witches and curses. It is firmly grounded upon a wide range of primary sources, many hitherto unprinted, and makes use of the interpretations of modern social science. Religion and the Decline of Magic is an important and original work which contains much to interest historians, theologians, sociologist, social anthropologists, students of English literature, students and dabblers in the occult, and those who simply enjoy contemplating the vagaries of human nature." -Publisher