The postmodern university is fascinated with magic, and this is a most curious coupling—one with ominous social overtones.
Until the mid-twentieth century, serious academics regarded any mention of magic as the ravings of the stupid or insane. They followed the scientific method of empiricism, emphasizing verifiable evidence in acquiring knowledge and forming ideas.
What is Magic, Anyway?
The “Occult Art, Occultism” entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia defines magic as “an interference with the usual course of physical nature.” The practitioner accomplishes it by “recitation of formularies, gestures, mixing of incongruous elements, and other mysterious actions.” The effort is an “attempt to work miracles not by the power of God…but by the use of hidden forces beyond man’s control. Its advocates…seek the desired result by evoking powers ordinarily reserved to the Deity.” Magic “is a corruption of religion.”
The Encyclopedia makes another highly pertinent point. Magic, it says, “appears as an accompaniment of decadent rather than of rising civilization.”
Science Versus Magic
The new-found interest in magic seems strange in a world that has long been dominated by materialism and rigid use of the scientific method.
Many academics became so obsessed with the scientific method that they saw it as the only way to discern the truth. This sense germinated a heresy called “scientism,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities).” Among scientism’s harmful effects was the ridicule academics heaped upon Christianity. To many, the idea of anything supernatural—good or evil—was simply too absurd to be seriously considered.
Throughout the twentieth century, this materialistic model prevailed. It ignored the fact that each individual is comprised of body and soul. The spiritual side is the superior one from which springs spiritual needs and desires.
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This superior side of human nature makes every person unique and establishes their dignity. This side is what gives rise to political, social, cultural, and religious activities and sciences that tower above mere material economic sustenance. It deals more directly with life’s more important things and, ultimately, one’s eternal salvation.
The modern fixation with material progress soon produced immense longings for the long-neglected spiritual fulfillment. However, instead of returning to Christianity, the sixties generation filled that spiritual void with drugs, music and sexual fantasies that rebelled against progress and the staid establishment.
Others would embrace Eastern pseudo-religions or find fulfillment in the occult, witchcraft or magic.
These trends have become so mainstream that they are now found in the halls of academia, which once saw themselves as the transmitters of empiricism and scientism.
Course Descriptions
The new fascination with the occult is best seen in the official descriptions from college catalogs. From the Religion Department at Ivy-League Columbia comes “Magic and Modernity,” a three-credit class.
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“This course introduces students to the cultural history of magic: as an idea, as a practice, and as a tool with which [to] wield power and induce wonder. Magic, as we will explore, is a modern concept, the contours of which have been shaped by its relations with religion and science, always against larger backdrops—of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, (post) colonialism, and (post) secularism.”
The Ivy League school in New Haven, Connecticut, offers the mysteriously named HIST 214J, “History of the Night.” Yale’s catalog explains.
“This seminar is dedicated to the reality and the perception of the night across time and in different cultures…. Nightfall provides multiple opportunities for dissent and rebellion and becomes an ideal space for marginal and subordinate people. Historical analysis, literary texts, medical and scientific writings, and primary sources…examine how the night became the abode of the ghost, the devil, the witch, and the dead, and how the night became criminalized, commercialized and even politicized.”
All Fun and Games?
Moving to the Midwest, Indiana University Bloomington invites students to participate in “A History of Magic, or It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Accused of Witchcraft.”
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“Do you believe in magic? Historically, a lot of people have done…. We have records of attempts to divine who will win a battle, recipes for spells to make your boss like you more, and witchcraft accusations against the most disempowered and disliked people in a community. This course then takes us through the varied sources on magic to ask the question—why were people interested in magic?”
Freshmen at Tulane may want to explore a course inspired, in part, by the University’s home city of New Orleans, “Ancient Magic, Modern Witchcraft.”
“For the inhabitants of the ancient world, magic and witchcraft were part of everyday life. In modern-era New Orleans, magical practitioners have also found a home and a place in the local culture. This course will explore magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in two ways: first as they existed in ancient Near Eastern civilizations (such as Mesopotamia and biblical Israel), and how these beliefs continue into modern America (especially locally in NOLA).”
Do-It-Yourself Spells
Perhaps, though, none of these classes can match the final exam in Duke University’s writing course 101.11, “Radical Magic.”
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“For your final project, you will create your own personal grimoire, or spell-book. Yes, you read that right—a spell book! This non-traditional assignment challenges the distinctions we often put between writing, crafting, art, and magic, and it will provide a space to try new things….”
Engineering majors who take Radical Magic to satisfy the writing requirement may be comforted by the catalog’s inclusion of a pseudo-mathematical equation, “RM = (W+L+H+R+A).” It translates to “Radical Magic = Writing + Literature + History + Religion + Art.”
A Serious Side to the Academic Foolishness
It is tempting to make fun of the attempts at erudite sophistication with which these colleges cloak these imitation academic offerings. However, their adolescent attempts to shock and amaze the students mask a deadly seriousness. As mentioned before, magic is a sign of a society’s degeneration. Even more than that, these naïve students and their professors are playing with the very substance of evil itself, which has massive and unforeseeable consequences. That is especially true for those who play with a Devil in whom they do not believe.
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In 1949, young Robbie Mannheim experienced Satanic possession through “playing” on an Ouija board with his Aunt Harriet. Perhaps these young people would be amused at the prospect, but any exorcist can tell them that the possibility is deadly (and eternally) serious. God will not be mocked, and the devil plays for keeps.
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