Feb 6
Dear Nick,
If Wiccans are as prone to squabbling as members of other religions, surely those squabblings are about beliefs and practices that are to be found in other religions as well. Therefore the respect that we have been told is distinctive of Wiccans is not to be found.
The cross-purposes to which you refer do not hold--unless the adherents themselves make no claims about their beliefs or practices.
Robert
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From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nicholas Campion [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 7:37 AM
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Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] How to Cure a Witch...
Observing this strand, there seems to me to be a certain amount of talking at cross-purposes: whether religions are characterised by theologies, or by the people who adhere to them.
If we are talking about theologies, most religions (I’m not at all sure how to define that term: if Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses are both Christian, what exactly do they have in common?) have exclusivist and inclusivist forms.
And if we are talking about people, then some are more sympathetic to what we might characterise as the ‘theosophical’ view that all religions contain a core of truth, and some prefer the opposite, that their truth is more true than anyone else’s.
I don’t think Wiccans are any more or less prone to imagining they are superior to any other religion than members of any other religion. Some I know think they are superior; others don’t really care.
Actually, can I put this to any Wiccans out there:
Is it not truer to say that the bitter hatred some Wiccans have for each other, and the mutual denunciation that some reserve for their fellows (my tradition is better than yours; your coven has no authority, etc.) suggests that issues of superiority may be more a matter of internal rivalries within Wicca than relationships with other religions?
Has anyone found this to be the case?
Nick Campion
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
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