Through a Glass Darkly: Magic and Religion in Western Thought and Practice

Abstract

Lee Siegel, magician, author, and professor of religion, in Net ofMagic: Wonders and Deceptions in India (1991), quotes an informant to this effect: “Yes, religion is magic, magic is religion. Everywhere” (278). And while there are many ways in which the statement makes perfect sense in India, those are fighting words in Western cultures, where many generations of scholars, theologians, and practitioners have endeavored to draw a distinguishing line between these two activities that share so much in common. What is at stake in that effort? Why is the effort to disentangle them fraught with a high emotional tone? We might well wonder how it is that this issue continues to conjure, much as a magician might, such clouds of obfuscation, not to mention scholarly sleight of hand. There is a long history here that is wildly complex. Recent scholarship provides considerable insight into the topic. The best among these efforts reflect the murky ambivalence and paradoxical nature of both magic and religion. It is precisely this murky reflection that is the topic of this essay, and although the full breadth and depth of the available material cannot be properly explored here, a tour of sources and images across boundaries both real and imagined is revealing. We embark on a circuitous voyage through time, geography, and the power of imagination. The setting is a hall of mirrors.

Susan L. Schwartz is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion Studies at Muhlenberg College. Her research and teaching are in the area of religion and culture, with a focus on India. Schwartz offers a wide-ranging tour of the longstanding tension between religion and magic in western thought and practice. Western thinkers commonly regard religion and magic as foes—antagonistic systems of belief and practice. Conversely, Schwartz demonstrates their profound similarities. The conceptual border separating religion from magic, she argues, is unstable, volatile, and highly revealing. This boundary is a flash point for matters of social hierarchy, gender, religious legitimacy, and geographical location. What does the uneasy relationship between religion and magic suggest about Western anxieties regarding life, death, identity, and authority?