Witchcraft and magical beliefs have captivated historians and artists for millennia, and stimulated an extraordinary amount of research among scholars in a wide range of disciplines. This new collection, from the editor of the highly acclaimed 1992 set, Articles on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology , extends the earlier volumes by bringing together the most important articles of the past twenty years and covering the profound changes in scholarly perspective over the past two decades. Featuring thematically organized papers from a broad spectrum of publications, the volumes in this set encompass the key issues and approaches to witchcraft research in fields such as gender studies, anthropology, sociology, literature, history, psychology, and law. This new collection provides students and researchers with an invaluable resource, comprising the most important and influential discussions on this topic. A useful introductory essay written by the editor precedes each volume.

This work about witchcraft, sorcery, black magic, neuromancy, damnation, satanism and every kind of magic and occult is written by the undisputed scholar in the field and is a work of unprecedented authority, of interest to all who are connected with the subject.

Belief in the devil and other evil spirits of the Christian tradition is a topic that has been widely discussed in recent years. Since the release of movies such as 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'The Exorcist', more people are wondering, Is Satan really dead? Is there such a phenomenon as obsession or possession? In 'The Devil, Demonology, and Witchcraft', Henry Ansgar Kelly postulates his belief that the existence of evil spirits is not probable and suggests that Christians would be better off acting on the assumption that they do not exist. To prove his claim, the author sets forth a history and analysis of the impact of demonological traditions developed within Judaism and Christianity over the centuries. He then considers the incorporation of these notions into early Christian teaching with the resulting demonological dotrines of witchcraft, possession, and temptation. Kelly's conclusion is that Satan is dead, and demonology should be eliminated from Christian dogma since, according to his thesis, these manifestations in the Bible reflect the beliefs of local cultures and not divine revelation. The present edition has been substantially revised and updated by the author to include an evaluation and critique of 'The Exorcist', wherein Kelly challenges William Peter Blatty's facts of the alleged possession in 1949 on which 'The Exorcist' is based.

Witchcraft and magic are topics of enduring interest for many reasons. The main one lies in their extraordinary interdisciplinarity: anthropologists, folklorists, historians, and more have contributed to build a body of work of extreme variety and consistence. Of course, this also means that the subjects themselves are not easy to assess. In a very general way, we can define witchcraft as a supernatural means to cause harm, death, or misfortune, while magic also belongs to the field of supernatural, or at least esoteric knowledge, but can be used to less dangerous effects (e.g., divination and astrology). In Western civilization, however, the witch hunt has set a very peculiar perspective in which diabolical witchcraft, the invention of the Sabbat, the persecution of many thousands of (mostly) female and (sometimes) male presumed witches gave way to a phenomenon that is fundamentally different from traditional witchcraft. This Special Issue of Religions dedicated to Witchcraft, Demonology, and Magic features nine articles that deal with four different regions of Europe (England, Germany, Hungary, and Italy) between Late Medieval and Modern times in different contexts and social milieus. Far from pretending to offer a complete picture, they focus on some topics that are central to the research in those fields and fit well in the current “cumulative concept of Western witchcraft” that rules out all mono-causality theories, investigating a plurality of causes.

This classic of esoterica, written by the field's foremost scholar, employs colorful, little-known anecdotes and historical accounts to explore witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, damnation, Satanism, and every variety of magic.