Religion, Science, and Magic This page intentionally left blank RELIGION, SCIENCE, AND MAGIC In Concert and In Conflict EDITED BY Jacob Neusner Ernest S. Frerichs AND Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1989 by Oxford University Press, Inc. First published in 1989 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1992. Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Religion, science, and magic. Papers presented at a conference held at Brown University, Aug. 13, 1987. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Magic—Religious aspects -Congresses. 2. Magic-Religious aspects-Judaism-Congresses. 3. Magic-Religious aspects-Christianity—Congresses. 4. Religion and science-1946- -Congresses. I. Neusner, Jacob, 1932- II. Frerichs, Ernest S. III. Flesher, Paul Virgil McCracken BL65.M2R45 1989 291.3'3 88-19532 ISBN 0-19-505603-5 ISBN 0-19-507911-6 (pbk) 2468 10 9753 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Dedicated by all the editors to the memory of the son of one of us and friend of another JOHN ALLEN FRERICHS 1951-1987 Whose sudden death, just after our conference, saddened our days and left us with the sharp pain of the knowledge of good and evil: How brief, how uncertain, things are but whose memory endures for us as a reminder of how much of us endures in love and hope and faith This page intentionally left blank Preface In inquiring about the relationships between religion and magic and sci- ence, or learning and magic, this book marks the movement from the fairly well-accepted and clearly defined distinction between religion in the form of miracle and magic down the path toward the distinction between science and magic. Treating science and learning as synonyms, the au- thors in these pages focus on the two distinctions and propose to draw them into relationship with one another. They lay stress on the better known distinction, the one between religious miracle and magic, while making ample place for discourse on the other distinction as well. In many ways we propose in these pages to mark the conclusion of the study of one set of theoretical problems and to take up —in the middle of studies to be sure —another one. The interplay of religion and magic, religion and learning or science, works itself out in both concert and conflict, as a religious tradition defines for itself acceptable and unac- ceptable religion and learning, and in both cases identifies the unaccepta- ble as magic. One sort of paper is specific, describing how a single group of Chris- tian or Judaic thinkers dealt with the categories of magic and religion. The other sort of paper proposes to compare and contrast system to system, and so to draw generalizations into line with entirely alien worlds as well. So one type is descriptive, and the other speculative. Altogether the papers form a sustained and cogent inquiry conducted by diverse scholars and approaches to learning on the interesting problem at hand: a very specific form of self-definition of a society. Therefore, we bring together historians with historians of religion and sociologists. The histo- Vlll PREFACE rians, including scholars of literature and religion (Christianity, Judaism) at important and representative moments in the formative history in the West, ancient and medieval, here present set-piece papers, describing important case studies. The historians of religion and anthropologists contribute papers of two kinds. First, Hans H. Penner, the distinguished historian of religion, provides, for the whole, a set of questions and definitions available for provoking inquiry into specific problems and cases. A second theoretical statement conies from two sociologists, at the end of the book. In this way the social sciences seek to turn learning into generalizing exercises. Secondly, scholars of history, philology, text-study, and history of religion join in providing data from various settings, both literate and nonliterate, both Western and non-Western. Such data estab- lish a control through comparison for testing statements of generalization applicable, in fact, only to a single case— for example, Western civiliza- tion. The data from diverse worlds help overcome the natural desire to generalize on the basis of a single case. At the end we revert to issues of theory and method, seeking proposals for fruitful hypotheses, therefore further research in an open-ended inquiry. In so defining matters as to impose a tension between two worlds of discourse, descriptive and ana- lytical, we create the conditions for fruitful dialogue. The interesting problems transcend any one discipline and, by nature, affect diverse groups in various periods of time and circumstance. That is why we assembled at Brown University for a conference on the subject of this book scholars in a variety of fields, humanistic and social scientific, concrete and descriptive, theoretical and analytical. We seek in this vol- ume to accomplish the twin tasks of describing and theorizing. We present both theoretical papers, by anthropologists and historians of religion, as well as descriptive-historical papers, by historians of religion, historians of philosophy (our component covering science and magic), and sociologists. In this way we hope to bring into conversation the two essentially separate types of scholars working in the humanities today: those who ask questions of generalization, such as are essential, and those who contribute responsible and accurate description. This book records papers presented at a conference at Brown University, August 9-13, 1987. But some of the papers were not read at the confer- ence, and some of those presented orally are not included in the book. So the book stands on its own and not as a mere memorial to a meeting. The editors express thanks to the following, who made possible the conference on which this volume is based: the Lilly Foundation, Indianapolis, Indi- PREFACE IX ana, the Max Richter Foundation of Rhode Island, the Alperin Family Foundation, Brown University through Dean of the Faculty John Quinn, and the Friends of Judaic Studies at Brown University. The budget of the conference derived from these valued friends of our Program's studies in Judaism in the context of the humanities and the Jews in the setting of the social sciences. Providence, Rhode Island J. N. August 13, 1988 E. S.F. P.V. McC. F.