Defining Magic: A Reader (Critical Categories in the Study of Religion) - Softcover

Otto, Bernd-Christian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908049804 ISBN 13: 9781908049803

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

Otto Bernd-Christian (Editor), Michael Stausberg (Editor)

About this title

About the Author:

Bernd-Christian Otto is Postdoctoral Researcher of the Study of Religion at the University of Erfurt, Germany, and has published a monograph on the conceptual history of magic. Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen. His most recent publications include Religion and Tourism, Zarathrustra amd Zoroastrianism, and, as co-editor, Contemporary Theories of Religion and Theorizing Rituals.

Review:

"Defining Magic offers an ideal overview of the topic. Like myth, magic connotes everything from falsity/trickery to deepest truth. The editors offer a wonderfully comprehensive presentation of seemingly all possible characterizations of the term and theories of the phenomenon. The selections start with the ancients, both pagan and Christian, and then proceed through the millennia to contemporary views. Both philosophical and social scientific authorities are represented. One of the best source books for studying magic that I have ever seen. A first-rate volume." --Robert Segal, University of Aberdeen

"Defining magic is tricky business, but Otto and Stausberg provide valuable guidance through difficult conceptual and theoretical terrain, with judicious introductions complementing well-chosen historical and modern "definers" of the term." --Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1908049804
• ISBN 13: 9781908049803
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296