Defining Magic

"Defining Magic offers an ideal overview of the topic. Like myth, magic connotes everything from falsity/trickery to deepest truth. The editors offer a wonderfully comprehensive presentation of seemingly all possible characterizations of the term and theories of the phenomenon. The selections start with the ancients, both pagan and Christian, and then proceed through the millennia to contemporary views. Both philosophical and social scientific authorities are represented. One of the best source books for studying magic that I have ever seen. A first-rate volume." - Robert Segal, University of Aberdeen "Defining magic is tricky business, but Otto and Stausberg provide valuable guidance through difficult conceptual and theoretical terrain, with judicious introductions complementing well-chosen historical and modern "definers" of the term." - Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University "The editors do an excellent job of delineating the manifold resonances of magic - the judicious selections reproduced here trace magic from its conceptual debt to ancient Greece to decidedly modern iterations - Recommended." - Choice "'Defining Magic' is a useful addition to the scholarly literature on magic - with or with-out quotes - and will be helpful to undergradu-ate and graduate students as a starting point for inquiry. It is also sufficiently straightfor-ward to appeal to the informed general reader. An added value is the quality - and quantity - of the editorial material." - BASR Book Reviews

Bernd-Christian Otto is Postdoctoral Researcher of the Study of Religion at the University of Erfurt, Germany, and has published a monograph on the conceptual history of magic. Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen. His most recent publications include Religion and Tourism, Zarathrustra amd Zoroastrianism, and, as co-editor, Contemporary Theories of Religion and Theorizing Rituals.

General Introduction Part I: Historical Sources Introduction 1. Alcibades I and Laws, Plato 2. Historia Naturalis, Pliny the Elder 3. Enneads, Plotinus 4. City of God and On Christian Doctrine, Augustine of Hippo 5. Etymologiae, Isidore of Seville 6. Suda, Anonymous 7. Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas 8. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa of Nettesheim 9. Encyclopedie, Denis Diderot 10. Theosophical Glossary, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Part II: Foundational Works of the Academic Debate Introduction 11. Primitive Culture, Edward B. Tylor 12. The Golden Bough, James George Frazer 13. "A General Theory of Magic", Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert 14. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Emile Durkheim Part III: Mid-Twentieth-Century Approaches to Magic Introduction 15. Religion in Essence and Manifestation, Gerardus van der Leeuw 16. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, Edward E. Evans-Pritchard 17. "Magic, Science and Religion", Bronislaw Malinowski 18. "African Traditional Thought and Western Science", Robin Horton 19. "Form and Meaning of Magical Acts: A Point of View", Stanley J. Tambiah 20. Culture and Communication, Edmund R. Leach Part IV: Contemporary Voices Introduction 21. "Magical Consciousness: A Legitimate Form of Knowledge", Susan Greenwood 22. "Magic in Theoretical Practice", Christopher I. Lehrich 23. "Magic Reconsidered: Towards a Scientifically Valid Concept of Magic", Jesper Sorensen 24 "Magic Discourse in the Ancient World", Kimberly B. Stratton 25. "Magic and the Play of Power", Randall Styers