I am not denying that any of these subtle, tricky, or epistemologically sophisticated approaches to religion are interesting.<br>What I am wondering is why does the secular academic approach lead to a cynical attack on the simple faith of people who really do believe in their &quot;spiritual choices&quot; or membership in a religious group? I don&#39;t think I&#39;m attacking Wiccans when I say that some of them might really believe in their religion. I think it&#39;s important to distinguish between those who really take a stand for their faith, and inappropriate to pathologize them without really studying the issue first.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 3:16 PM, jason winslade <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:[log in to unmask]"><a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a></a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">also, an interesting theme in Charles DeLint&#39;s Forests of the Heart, in the same realm as Gaiman.<br><div><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><div class="im"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> D E &lt;<a href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank"><a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a></a>&gt;<br>
</div><div class="im"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank"><a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a></a><br></div><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tue, February 8, 2011 5:13:37 PM<div class="im">
<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] How to Cure a Witch...<br></div></font><div class="im"><br>


 
 


<div><font face="Arial" size="2">not an academic ref, but Neil Gaiman&#39;s American 
Gods has an intruiging take on how various immigrant races going to the new 
world took their gods with them, and *they changed*</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
  <div style="font: 10pt arial;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
  <div style="font: 10pt arial; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(228, 228, 228);"><b>From:</b> 
  <a rel="nofollow" title="<a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">janet 
  ifimust</a> </div>
  <div style="font: 10pt arial;"><b>To:</b> <a rel="nofollow" title="<a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank"><a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a></a> 
  </div>
  <div style="font: 10pt arial;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, February 08, 2011 11:11 
  PM</div>
  <div style="font: 10pt arial;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] How 
  to Cure a Witch...</div>
  <div><br></div>This has been explored in other areas, on other lists - 
  NeosAlexandria has explored it a bit and it&#39;s an intersting idea (I&#39;m afraid I 
  can&#39;t change the subject in this email, but it probably needs a new 
  one).  How are the gods affected - if at all - when believers change 
  their beliefs about them?  There are articles dealing with various 
  permutations of this in some of the NA publications....<br><br>
  <div style="text-align: left; padding: 0px; line-height: 130%; margin-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; color: black; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; overflow: hidden;"></div>
  <div class="gmail_quote">On 8 February 2011 21:58, D E <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank"><a href="/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind1102%26L%3DACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D4010001%26B%3D--00151757460213e664049bcda050%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3DISO-8859-1%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a></a>&gt;</span> 
  wrote:<br>
  <blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote">
    <div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">the spoon belongs to anyone who beleives it is 
    theirs strongly enough</font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">it also occurs that what do we do where an 
    extant relgious activity takes on new and &#39;foreign&#39; aspects?</font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">one example; the aboriginal dreaming paintings 
    which reflect the land and tribal history etc of Australia, and (i think 
    this was in a book by somebody like Lyall Watson) the painter than goes to a 
    big city or rides in a plane, and on his return, paints skyscrapers and jets 
    into his dreamtime scene- is that destroying the &#39;real&#39; religious stuff, the 
    often centuries-old evolving paintings, or is it toitally valid to go into 
    the painting? </font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">another example- tribal island religions that 
    developed into Cargo Cults after world war 2</font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">this brings in an aspect where religious belief 
    changes within a society</font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">*getting headache now!*</font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Dave E</font></div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
    <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Dr. Janet Goodall<br>Research Fellow<br>Institute of 
  Education<br>University of Warwick<br><span><a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wie/aboutus/" target="_blank">http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wie/aboutus/</a></span><br></blockquote></div></div></div>
</div><br>







      </div></blockquote></div><br>