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Current Issue Abstracts Winter 2009 Vol. 4.2 • • • • • • • • The Contested Boundaries of "Magic" and "Religion" in Late Pagan Monotheism Kyle A. Fraser The Western concept of "magic" as the demonized other of religion is usually held to originate within early Christian representations of pagan idolatry. This article argues instead that the magic-religion dichotomy was first shaped within pagan monotheistic discourse. Late pagan thinkers were deeply preoccupied with the reconciliation of theology and cult. They questioned whether the older traditions of cult sacrifice were compatible with the worship of one supreme God. The most prevalent way of addressing this tension was to argue that rituals were addressed to daimones. Ritual actions that fell outside the bounds of monotheistic piety were illegitimate and magical. The category "magic" as religion's oppositive thus evolved out of tensions between pagan monotheism and daimonology. Bears, Boars, and other Socially Constructed Bodies in Hrólfs saga kraka Michael McGlynn This article analyzes one motif related to the Old Norse-Icelandic character Bodvar Bjarki. The motif of the body double is analyzed in four extant witnesses to the Bjarki tradition. The motif is then compared to so-called out-of-body experience, as formulated in parapsychological studies, to provide new insights into this fascinating motif, which has been otherwise ignored or dismissed by literary scholars. The concept of "body" is then historicized to widen the interpretive gamut for the body double motif. Finally, Oriental traditions of multiple bodies and growingly popular and scientific concepts of multiple bodies and energy bodies are briefly considered as one possible way to update the context of literary science. While making this analysis of the body double motif, the paper advocates for a new sense of the literary, more consciously in dialogue with vanguard thought of other disciplines. Magicians of the Twenty-First Century: An Attempt at Dimensioning the Magician's Personality Gerhard Mayer This article presents findings of a field study of comtemporary magicians representing a large spectrum of magical disciplines. Eleven interviews were conducted in German-speaking countries, focusing on biographical embedding, experiential aspects, and world views. From this data, an attempt is made to describe the magician's personality. Five approaches and motivational structures guiding magical practice are identified, and five typified aspects of the magician are distinguished: the magician as artist, the magician as social utopian, the magician as scientist, the magician as "fully functioning person," and the magician as seeker of wisdom. A Grand End for a Grand Narrative: Lodovico Lazzarelli, Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio and Renaissance Hermetica Brian P. Copenhaver This long review essay addresses Wouter Hanegraaff and Ruud Bouthoorn's new book on Lodovico Lazzarelli. It examines the fundamental point of how completely Renaissance magical thought should be considered "hermetic." Francis Yates' notion of Renaissance Hermeticism still holds great sway, but in the introduction to this book, Hanegraaff challenges it substantially. |
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