StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The author of the article "Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America" seeks to shed new light on such sociological phenomena like Wicca, Ayurveda, Transcendental meditation and other New Age phenomena are often trivialized by the accepted sciences…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.2% of users find it useful
Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America"

Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In AmericaScarboro, Allen and Luck. Philip Andrew The goddess and power: Witchcraft and religion in America. Journal of Contemporary Religion. 12.1, 1997: 69-79 The author’s of this article approach their subject with an open mind in the hopes of shedding new light on sociological phenomena. While subjects like Wicca, Ayurveda, Transcendental mediation and other New Age phenomena are often trivialized by the accepted sciences, the authors see that as a mistake.

They preformed a year-long study at Ravenwood, one of the largest covens in the United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia it was founded in 1976 and has taken on the role of a teaching coven to help bring their system of beliefs to others. Their research strategy was multi-staged with the intended goal to find out who the members of Ravenwood are, what they believe and what they did as witches, and what this all meant to them being members of this group on a larger scale. Wicca has one important difference with most mainstream religions, it has a, “…woman-centered, goddess-worshipping, nature-affirming, participative, this-worldly-orientated religion.” (69) This is often the polar opposite of religions that picture God as the all-powerful Male and mankind as his representative on earth with the ability to use nature as he pleases.

Their research bore this alternative attitude out among the witches of Ravenwood. While we see the typical God as separate from creation and man certainly quite separate from God, Wicca is the opposite. The set of images in Wicca are not the male, assertive, dominating ones, but rather the female, progenerative, creative ones of the goddess. Also, another important difference is how the goddes is represeted in mulitple personas. Whereas God is just God, the goddess can be seen, “…through many mythic threads through a range of guises as maid, mother, crone, as creatrix, nurturer, destroyer, as daughter, wife,…” (72) and so on.

Here instead of God being separate from nature, the goddess is a part of nature. She is found, “… in the paths of the stars and the changes of the moon, in 'rabbit-tracks in the snow', in the ceaseless run and turn of the tides. The goddess is in the world, in nature, rather than separate from the world.” (73) Furthermore, instead of their only being a few selected ones, such as priest, who can commune directly with God, in Wicca every initiate, every member is a priest or priestess who can commune directly with the goddess.

There is no need for an intermediary here. The authors feel that the view of Witchcraft in the overall aspect of the sociology of Religion has too narrow a view placed upon it by researchers. Wicca creates a living, exciting world from one that has become mundane in modern society, not something to be taken lightly. In fact the authors see Wicca as a valuable contribution in creating a “transgendered divine” (77) that can heal the absence of the female lacking in religion and society at large.

They also feel that the multiplicity of Wiccas’s representation of the goddess is an important model for our new golbal society that has to cope with diversity in all it flavors. “Finally, in a society experiencing increasing tension between its history and its increasingly multicultural character, Wicca offers a religious model of tolerance--indeed, of celebration--of difference and multiplicity.” (77) In this light the sociological contribution of such a belief system is certainly worth a much more closer look.

Works CitedScarboro, Allen and Luck. Philip Andrew The goddess and power: Witchcraft and religion in America. Journal of Contemporary Religion. 12.1, 1997: 69-79

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/religion-and-theology/1559407-1-religion-reflection-assignment-on-a-reading-by-scarboro-and-luck-called-the-goddess-and-power-reading-material-is-uploaded
(Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America Essay)
https://studentshare.org/religion-and-theology/1559407-1-religion-reflection-assignment-on-a-reading-by-scarboro-and-luck-called-the-goddess-and-power-reading-material-is-uploaded.
“Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/religion-and-theology/1559407-1-religion-reflection-assignment-on-a-reading-by-scarboro-and-luck-called-the-goddess-and-power-reading-material-is-uploaded.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Attitude Of The Religion To The Witchcraft In America

Witch-hunting in Scotland: A Gender-Based Analysis

the witchcraft in question almost always happened immediately after a disagreement between victim and witch, and the involved individuals were often neighbors.... However, it requires a sufficient number of evidence to prove that practically all witches were women and to verify that those suspected of witchcraft were persecuted because they were females.... It requires more than sufficient evidence to prove that witchcraft convictions were manipulated in an effort to oppress and retain power over women....
18 Pages (4500 words) Research Paper

The Worlds Knowledge of Witchcraft

Scholars believe that witchcraft in Europe was part of a very ancient religion that existed long before Christianity.... So it must have been nothing new for the British to come upon the practice of witchcraft in many African territories that they colonized.... Much like their forbears in the Middle Ages, their reaction to witchcraft in Africa was one of fear followed by a desire to persecute and eliminate the source of that fear.... Between then and the 20th century the British empire had reached around the world, such that it was said, “the sun never sets on the British… The British traders started it by exchanging African slaves for West Indies rum and sugar, American lumber and furs, and British manufactured goods. All this British colonial Most of the world's knowledge of witchcraft during that period and beyond in fact came down from Western Europe, where it was believed that many people practiced witchcraft, something considered evil and frightening....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Goddess and Power Witchcraft and Religion in America

These gender inclusive, equality prone values of the religion definitely provide great comfort and satisfaction to its female followers and make Wicca appear as a modernist religion.... nother important implication of the paper is that the Wicca religious beliefs and practices seem to attract the Americans because these beliefs and practices are not based upon the “ethics of sin and guilt” or “a law of ‘thou shalts' and ‘thou shalt nots'” (73) and conform to the materialistic, liberal, this-worldly and non-religious attitude of the common Americans who are Christians in theory but practically speaking seem to live their lives based on materialistic values and this-worldliness....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Why Harry Potter's Book Should be Banned

Harry Potter is actually found by the American Library Association to be the “most banned book in america” (Olukotun).... Johnson explores how witchcraft in the book is realistically written by one who claims to have previously practiced it before he found Christianity.... he Harry Potter books create the world of witchcraft in such a way that it is wonderful.... Johnson explores how witchcraft in the book is realistically written by one who claims to have previously practiced it before he found Christianity....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Factors of Decline in Witchcraft and Rise of Christianity in Europe

the witchcraft in the early medieval Europe period was essentially common folk magic or sorcery, developed over a period in the ancient period of 15th to 18th century2.... The decline of witch hunt and witchcraft in Europe was a gradual... The practice of witchcraft and witch hunt subsided in the late 17th century, and by 18th century the last trials and executions took place in some parts of the medieval Europe.... The causes for the decline of witchcraft and witch hunt are many and fairly complex....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

Witch Trials in the New Colonies of America

The essay " Salem Witch Trials" tells the history of trials of Europe and america were not comparable in regards to the number but each involved particular political, economic, and social implications and both arose from an environment of uncertainty and fear.... The trials of Europe and america were not comparable in regards to the number but each involved particular political, economic, and social implications and both arose from an environment of uncertainty and fear....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations

After knowing about witches or accused people practicing witchcraft, a major number of killings have come at the forefront historically describing the unapproved status of witchcraft in Islam and Christianity.... It is believed that witches get united with malevolent forces and work against the religious people and the religion as a whole to injure it due to which, witches and witchcraft are completed rebuffed in both religions (Thomas, 1997).... This literature review "witchcraft Confessions and Accusations" discusses witches that are considered evil and devilish giving harm to people and their property....
7 Pages (1750 words) Literature review

Religious Equality in America

This paper ''Religious Equality in america'' tells that America has long espoused the virtues of religious freedom.... Whether or not religious equality is evident in america, however, is another question altogether.... t is important to note that religious discrimination in america, particularly in the workplace, has long been declared to be illegal.... ince the early days of the American colonies, america has been considered to be a Christian nation....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us