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基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2010. Charts the rise and fall of superstition in European history - from magical healing, spells, and divination, to the widespread belief in fairies and demons.
Full Description
Since the dawn of history people have used charms and spells to try to control their environment, and forms of divination to try to foresee the otherwise unpredictable chances of life. Many of these techniques were called 'superstitious' by educated elites.
For centuries religious believers used 'superstition' as a term of abuse to denounce another religion that they thought inferior, or to criticize their fellow-believers for practising their faith 'wrongly'. From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, scholars argued over what 'superstition' was, how to identify it, and how to persuade people to avoid it. Learned believers in demons and witchcraft, in their treatises and sermons, tried to make 'rational' sense of popular superstitions by blaming them on the deceptive tricks of seductive demons.
Every major movement in Christian thought, from rival schools of medieval theology through to the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, added new twists to the debates over superstition. Protestants saw Catholics as superstitious, and vice versa. Enlightened philosophers mocked traditional cults as superstitions. Eventually, the learned lost their worry about popular belief, and turned instead to chronicling and preserving 'superstitious' customs as folklore and ethnic heritage.
Enchanted Europe offers the first comprehensive, integrated account of western Europe's long, complex dialogue with its own folklore and popular beliefs. Drawing on many little-known and rarely used texts, Euan Cameron constructs a compelling narrative of the rise, diversification, and decline of popular 'superstition' in the European mind.
Contents
PART 1: DISCERNING AND CONTROLLING INVISIBLE FORCES: THE IMAGE OF 'SUPERSTITION' IN THE LITERATURE; PART 2: THE LEARNED RESPONSE TO SUPERSTITIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES: ANGELS AND DEMONS; PART 3: SUPERSTITIONS IN CONTROVERSY: RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATIONS; PART 4: THE COSMOS CHANGES SHAPE: SUPERSTITION IS RE-DEFINED
