Theology Notes 2/7

Why have Christians historically frowned upon witchcraft?

  • “Devil worship” / “Devil pact” / “demon pact”

Why not worship / form pact with the devil or demons?

  • “They are evil / you should only worship god”

Why are demons evil?

  • “They go against the word / values of god”

  • “Demons are different from people and can’t repent”

What don’t modern witches tend to like about Christian religion?

  • A lot of witches are strongly feminists and believe that Christianity promotes patriarchal values

  • Instead of worshipping an authority, they look within themselves for redemption

  • Their values and practices revolve around things like rituals, tarot, and cleansing rather than praying

What characterizes modern witchcraft?

  • Ethical convictions

    • “Smash the patriarchy”

  • Centrality of feminine experience

  • “Second wave” feminism (older versions): witches are biological women with particular biological experiences (hereditary)

  • Community

  • A sense that others with similar personal experiences can be sources of knowledge

  • Rituals: spells, sage, fortune telling, curses

  • Invocation of “forces” or “cosmic energy” as a means to catharsis

  • Are curses a threat to community? Are there norms against cursing fellow witches?

  • Patterns of belief

    • Intuition and personal experience as sources of authority

    • The self as the main wellspring of knowledge/meaning

    • NOT necessarily belief in evil spirits

    • Ritual and centering of individual experience is a path to liberation and self-actualization

Witches have ethical convictions, rituals, community, and shared convictions beliefs, which is what religion- and even Christianity is. In Roman Catholicism, “religion” is understood as a universal human phenomenon- even atheists do it.

  • Religion as seeking after an ultimate underlying significance in human experiences