God Hates Magic
So say the Christian moms against Harry Potter. Of course, it is no business of mine what such moms tell their children or what they allow their children to read. As a proposition, though, the claim that God hates magic has a somewhat tortuous history. Magic, an anciently attested practice, has historically provoked a schizophrenic response in the Christian world. Popes patronized it and zealous preachers and reformers denounced it. Christians both practiced magic and condemned it. The reason is that, whatever we may think of the matter now, in past centuries what exactly magic consisted in was far from clear. Certainly, medieval Christians thought the arts and sciences legitimate objects of study and pursuit. Viewed from a certain angle, magic was nothing more than another science and another art. This is how figures as diverse as Pico, Ficino, Agrippa or Vaughn viewed it. The damnable art of sorcery, of course, was condemned by all the relevant authorities both classical and sc...