Keegan's Reflections on Witchcraft & Life

In this blog, I want to take a quick hiatus from deep, intellectual topics. Well, I will try my best to take a quick hiatus from deep, intellectual topics. Actually, I will try my best to not get super "deep," but I don't think I can avoid being at least a tad bit intellectual. I don't want to make promises I can't keep : D As the title of this blog indicates, I want to take a brief moment to offer my appreciation for A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult . I want to offer up this appreciation from the perspective of a business major in Neeley but also just as a student, a thinker, someone who doesn't naturally spend a lot of time reading or researching history. Now, I want to share my gratitude for A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult  for its content specifically and more generally. Specifically, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about the progression of magic since the beginning of human civilization up until now. I think it is fascinat...

Though it has been over a month since our first discussion of A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult  in the classroom, I still have a lingering question from that initial lecture. To recall the content of that discussion, the first chapter of our book focused on the "Ancient Roots" of magic from millennia long ago. Essentially, we discussed that magic has been around nearly as long as human civilization itself. In fact, there seems to be something innate in man that corresponds with belief in the supernatural. For as long as we can date human ancestry, we can similarly find traces of magic and the occult. In light of this discussion, Dr. Williams remarked that all religion has its roots in magic, that originally religion and magic were one in the same. I found this comment thought-provoking and worthy of consideration. Obviously, as can be seen from my previous blogs, my cards are already on the table in terms of the worldview I hold. In this blog, I would simply lik...

In my previous blog post, I mentioned how I am a Christian: one who believes that Jesus is King. Yet, at the same time, I am forced to grapple with the real deep grievances of the Church-- those mentioned in A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult  and the many untouched simply because they are not relevant to the content. How can I maintain my belief in the Lordship of Jesus while simultaneously reading about the gross abuses of power and corruption of the Church? How can I reconcile the character of Christ's Kingdom with the stains of Christ's Church? How am I supposed to respond to the fair and just criticisms of how the Church manipulated its positions and authority to preserve itself? I must begin with lament. I lament the ways in which the Church-- the Body of Christ-- has been a vessel for destruction, death, and persecution rather than life, unity, and flourishing. I lament the ways in which the Church-- the Bride of Christ-- has prostituted itself to the gods o...