Randall Styers

This is perhaps the best (but also probably the only) thorough review of how magic has been treated and perceived throughout the last few centuries. I shuddered to think of the clerical notetaking that this project required, for which he appears to have read practically everything, and retained a nuanced recall of it all. Whew! More than a catalog, he digests it all to tell coherent narratives of varying schools of thought. Anyone at all interested in this topic absolutely must add this to their collections. I'm just surprised it took so long for me to hear about it.… (plus d'informations)

Detailed overview of scholarly theories of the definition and place of magic in relation to religion, science and desire (will). Magic as a foil to definitions of those areas and as a repository of rejected characteristics. Particularly interesting is the idea that both religion and science have balanced their respective authorities by using magic and magical thinking as a reference. No practitioners were consulted, however, since this is a study of academic theories about magic rather than magic examples or insider theory.… (plus d'informations)

Styers writes about how the various modern social theories antagonistic to magic have served to police the boundaries of piety, reason, and desire, in the service of a bifurcation between spiritualized religion and scientific secular power. But he also notes that not all modern theorists have opposed magic, and that even its alleged repulsiveness involves a measure of self-recognition. The book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the ways in which academic disciplines approach the concept of magic.… (plus d'informations)