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A Community of Witches explores the beliefs and practices of Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft - generally known to scholars and practitioners as Wicca. While the words "magic," "witchcraft," and "paganism" evoke images of the distant past and remote cultures, this book shows that Wicca has emerged as part of a new religious movement that reflects the era in which it developed.
Imported to the United States in the late 1960s from the United Kingdom, the religion absorbed into its basic fabric the social concerns of the time: feminism, environmentalism, self-development, alternative spirituality, and mistrust of authority.
Helen A. Berger's ten-year participant observation study of Neo-Pagans and Witches on the eastern seaboard of the United States and her collaboration on a national survey of Neo-Pagans form the basis for exploring the practices, structures, and transformation of this nascent religion.
Responding to scholars who suggest that Neo-Paganism is merely a pseudoreligion or a cultural movement because it lacks central authority and clear boundaries, Berger contends that Neo-Paganism has many of the characteristics that one would expect of a religion born in late modernity: the appropriation of rituals from other cultures, a view of the universe as a cosmic whole, an emphasis on creating and re-creating the self, an intertwining of the personal and the political, and a certain playfulness.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Neopaganism, Witchcraft, Hexerei, Sorcellerie, Neuheidentum, Néopaganisme, Hekserij, RELIGION, Comparative Religion, BODY, MIND & SPIRIT, Spirituality, Paganism & Neo-Paganism, Heidendom, Parapsychology & Occult Sciences, Social Sciences, RELIGION / Paganism & Neo-PaganismPlaces
United StatesShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
A community of witches: contemporary neo-paganism and witchcraft in the United States
1999, University of South Carolina Press
in English
1570032467 9781570032462
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2
A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States (Studies in Comparative Religion)
November 1998, University of South Carolina Press
Hardcover
in English
1570032467 9781570032462
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Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-142) and index.
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First Sentence
"The phenomenon of well-educated, middle-class Americans worshipping ancient deities, practicing magic, and participating in rites such as the one described in the prologue to this book has drawn the attention of both the media and a small body of academics."
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