Magic Library

terror, and strove to render it harmless in a moral-religious sense ) I cannot, of course, go into all of this in detail here, but it has been done in several places in Siona*, especially according to the third, completely revised edition that has just appeared, and I ask that you compare the relevant sections there..

Regarding the belief in sorcery, it would have been just as aimless if Christianity had tried to deny it specifically and systematically. It wisely lets the matter and the general folk beliefs therein rest as they are, and speaks of them only occasionally and historically. Nowhere, however, does it speak of it, as happens in the revelation writings of other nations, as a reality, that is, as an evil art actually taking place, or even as something that occurs through the help or direct complicity of the devil and evil spirits, of which one must therefore be afraid, or which one must or can counteract through prayer, spiritual and magical antidotes, and the like. And with this, enough had been gained for the happiness of the world at that time, and indeed, in this total difference of the New Testament from all other older and newer revelation writings (compare, as mentioned, only the Koran in this respect!), a higher and divine origin of the same reveals itself in a quite remarkable way.

Specifically, it is to the honor of the New Testament that of the specific point of our present investigation, nothing, or at least nothing...