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Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England (Penguin History)
 
 
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Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England (Penguin History) [Kindle Edition]

Keith Thomas (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews) |
Print List Price: £18.99
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Product Description

Product Description

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's 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.

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.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1895 KB
  • Print Length: 880 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (30 Jan 2003)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B002RI9L9E
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #89,156 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is unquestionably one of the great works of history written in Englsh in the 20th century. It is hard, over thirty years later, to conceive of just how radical and imaginative this book appeared when it was first published. It not only transformed our understanding of English religious history, but also helped to permanently change our approach to the past. I would encourage prospective buyers not to pay too much attention to the negative comments in some of other reviews: the fact that this book still inspires controversy and debate a whole generation after its first printing is testimony to its greatness.
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38 of 42 people found the following review helpful
More then History. 8 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic was the first of my books for summer reading, and I doubt that any novel that I choose will be half as entertaining or any text as informative. By the conclusion I felt that I was completing an odessey throughout the early modern era with a sympathy and understanding of a world far different then ours in some respects, yet, as Thomas succinctly points out in the conclusion, profoundly similar. No other history book has granted me a deeper sense of understanding about human drives for stability and for explaination in all things. This is a book that grants insight and understanding far beyond its proclaimed subject matter, with positive and sweeping consequences for the objective thinker
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was one of my sources for an essay I wrote on how witchcraft, wise men and divination etc were tolerated more in Britain - even more so in Wales - after the Reformation, while in Catholic Europe, thousands were executed for practicing the so-called "dark arts."
When Catholicism disappeared in Britain, so did all its 'magic' (the rites, ceremonies and blessings that had replaced old pagan charms and offerings). Overnight, people lost their protection from those evil spirits out there, and turned to witches' and wise men's charms and spells. You could say it was a mini boom time for wise men and witches! And these gifted people were no fakes either. Being excellent herbalists and healers, they're magic was trusted, and people had faith in their spells - which made them work too. It was no wonder that people began to believe they could also protect crops from bad spirits that caused storms and drought. Their whole livelihoods depended on this magic.
A masterly work, this book is incisive, enlightening, and well before its time.
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
it fails to consider the role which the appeal to spirits can play in a magician's ritual and which magic has occupied in some forms of primitive religion. &quote;
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users
&quote;
Magic postulated occult forces of nature which the magician learned to control, whereas religion assumed the direction of the world by a conscious agent who could only be deflected from his purpose by prayer and supplication. &quote;
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users
&quote;
For the essential difference between the prayers of a churchman and the spells of a magician was that only the latter claimed to work automatically; a prayer had no certainty of success and would not be granted if God chose not to concede it. A spell, on the other hand, need never go wrong, unless some detail of ritual observance had been omitted or a rival magician had been practising stronger counter-magic. A prayer, in other words, was a form of supplication: a spell was a mechanical means of manipulation. &quote;
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

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