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Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality.(Book review)
Why, more than two centuries after the Enlightenment, are hundreds of thousands of Americans turning to witchcraft and other forms of paganism? One easy answer, and not an entirely inaccurate one, can be found in Chesterton's principle that when people cease to believe in God they will believe in anything. But that's not all there is to it, as journalist Catherine Edwards Sanders explains in her insightful new book, Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality (Shaw, 233 pp., $13.99). Growing interest in Wicca and other neo-pagan nature religions--especially among young women--is in substantial measure a reaction to specific failings in Christianity as it has been practiced.
The Biblical image of God as Father, for example, has been too often misunderstood as validating a social system in which men have a higher status than women; Wicca attracts people who want to repudiate, forcefully, any such view. (This external critique should prompt Christians to reconnect to the insight Paul expressed in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." If some passages in Scripture can be interpreted to support misogyny, this one can certainly be understood as a bold endorsement of the equal dignity of men and women.)
Catherine ...
- Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern...
- Magazine article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life Ruiz, Mary Angelita December 1, 2005 700+ words
...UNDERSTANDING THE SPIRITUAL HUNGER BEHIND THE RISE OF MODERN WITCHCRAFT AND PAGAN SPIRITUALITY...first investigated modern witchcraft as an assignment for...noting, not because modern witchcraft offers any serious...
- Was Hitler defeated by witchcraft?; On February 12, witches'covens across the...
- Newspaper article from: Daily Post (Liverpool, England) January 26, 2004 700+ words
...which is said to have a high incidence amongst occultists. This man is now widely regarded as ``the father'' of modern witchcraft, a movement which draws heavily on the ancient pagan traditions, blended with folk-wisdom, a love of the land and...
- Modern witchcraft.(News)
- Newspaper article from: Coventry Evening Telegraph (England) September 23, 2000 700+ words
A TALK on modern-day witchcraft and natural magic is being held at Exhall Old School Community Centre in School Lane, Exhall, on Friday (7.30pm) as an introduction to a 10-class course, over 20 weeks, aimed at removing the stigma surrounding the subject. The talk is free. For more information call
- Modern witchcraft has roots in '50s Britain.
- Newspaper article from: The Boston Herald Lawrence, J.M. October 22, 1998 700+ words
With roots reaching back to prehistoric times, modern-day witchcraft, or Wicca, came out of Britain in the 1950s through the writings of anthropologist Gerald B. Gardner, according to the Institute for the Study of American Religion. "It appears to be growing but very slowly," said director J.
- Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft.
- Magazine article from: Sociology of Religion Berger, Helen A. September 22, 1997 700+ words
Lewis's delightful sampler of recent research on Neo-Paganism, Wicca, and other magical religions provides a venue for new voices to be heard in discussions of these religions. Most of the papers in this book are by Witches and Neo-Pagans who have also been academically trained - in sociology,
- Spiritual Hunger Conference next week.
- Newspaper article from: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA) August 31, 2006 700+ words
...Seven years after Healing Rooms Ministries' first Spiritual Hunger Conference attracted 500 worshippers, founder and director...expecting attendance to reach 2,800 at the eighth annual Spiritual Hunger Conference, Sept. 6-9 at the new Group Health Exhibit...
- At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist...
- Magazine article from: Sojourners Heydron, Jo Ann May 1, 1999 700+ words
At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst. By Carol Lee Flinders. HarperSanFrancisco...book, At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst, Carol Lee Flinders identifies...
- FEEDING SPIRITUAL HUNGER; RECTOR OF ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH FACES CHALLENGE...
- Newspaper article from: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) January 19, 2006 700+ words
...groups, working groups - and nurturing discussions. Sharing a meal. That, he says, is their real business. "The spiritual hunger of people: What is the meaning of life? What's important? If people have a sense that they can access that...
