-46%

📖 Have you read this book?

Your review can inspire others to read it

🕯️ Occult Philosophy −46%

The End of Magic

Name: The End of Magic
Price: 115.00 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195108804

✍️ Glucklich, Ariel

Reader Score

4.5

(1 review)

$115.00 ~~$213.00~~ Save $98.00 (46%)

In stock — ready to ship Ships in 1–2 business days

📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

An academic study exploring why magic faces extinction while religion continues to flourish.

Ariel Glucklich examines the historical decline of magic alongside the continued endurance of religion. Using human anecdotes alongside modern social science theory, the text explores the function of ritual, the nature of belief, and the philosophical questions surrounding magical practices. Glucklich, drawing on his experience as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow, presents a scholarly framework that connects ritual behavior to anthropology, religious studies, and popular culture.

Key Themes

Magick Studies Comparative Religion Ritual and Belief

Literary Context

This text sits within modern academic studies of comparative religion, anthropology, and popular culture. Published by Oxford University Press, it addresses the historical decline of magical practice alongside the survival of religious traditions.

Glucklich, Ariel

📚 all books by this author (2) →

Difficulty

●●● Challenging

Recommended For Fans Of

James Frazer's The Golden Bough · Mircea Eliade's works on shamanism · Max Weber's sociological analyses of religion

🕯️

Occult Philosophy

Praise for this book

“The reader experiences...a sensible and engaging argument, taking off from a series of humanly gripping anecdotes, that actually confronts the sorts of questions that ordinary rational and not-so-rational people have about magic. This book should be of great value in undergraduate courses on religion, anthropology, and popular culture.”

— Wendy Doniger

“Like a boddhisattva, Glucklich succeeds in 'tricking' his reader into enlightenment, in this case into opening young minds to cutting edge social sciences theory and methodology as well as to a number of fundamental questions that ritual, belief, and yes, magic, pose for the fields of philosophy and religious studies.”

— David G. White

🏛 Oxford University Press 📅 1997 📖 264 pages 📔 Paperback ISBN: 9780195108804

Fun Fact

Glucklich's 'The End of Magic' offers a refreshingly rigorous and nuanced exploration of a topic often relegated to the fringes. It excels in its comparative analysis, providing a rich historical and philosophical framework for understanding magic's evolution and apparent decline. While it will deeply satisfy scholars and serious students of esoteric thought, those seeking a practical guide to magic or a polemic will be disappointed. This book is a significant contribution to the field, prompting essential questions about belief, agency, and the very fabric of our reality.

📝 Description: The End of Magic

Magic has shared a long history with religion across human society, yet it faces extinction today while religious faith continues to thrive. Writing from his perspective as an Assistant Professor at Pomona College and Lecturer at the Hebrew University, Ariel Glucklich investigates this shift. His work addresses the core questions behind magical practice, examining what magic is, what function it performs, and why people hold belief in it. The text builds its argument around a series of humanly gripping anecdotes, engaging with the standard questions ordinary rational individuals ask about magical beliefs. Drawing on cutting-edge social sciences theory and methodology, the text addresses fundamental questions that ritual, belief, and magic pose to philosophy and religious studies. It connects these subjects directly to broader topics in anthropology and popular culture. Scholars like Wendy Doniger and David G. White note its ability to introduce readers to complex academic perspectives through accessible narrative examples. This volume suits undergraduate students, scholars of comparative religion, and readers seeking a scholarly examination of magick studies and ritual belief. It is less suited for practitioners looking for practical spellwork or instructional manuals, as it focuses strictly on theoretical and academic analysis.

💎 Expert review

“

💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Glucklich delivers a profound, albeit dense, intellectual exploration of magic’s historical prominence and subsequent decline. The text is meticulously researched, offering critical insights into the psychological and cultural forces that sustained magical belief for millennia. However, this scholarly rigor may alienate casual readers or those seeking practical occult instructions. It is not suited for individuals looking for easy answers or romanticized notions of witchcraft. Instead, it demands patience from those willing to engage with complex sociological arguments about why organized religion thrives while magic fades.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers fascinated by the intersection of anthropology, psychology, and esoteric history will find this text indispensable. Ariel Glucklich offers a rigorous intellectual journey that clarifies why magic once stood as an equal to religion before receding into oblivion. This book is ideal for scholars and serious enthusiasts who wish to understand the deep-seated psychological reasons behind humanity's enduring fascination with magical practices. It provides a critical, scholarly lens through which to view a vanishing art form, answering fundamental questions about definition, application, and cultural persistence without resorting to mysticism.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.5/5

★★★★★

If you're fascinated by the philosophy of belief, the history of esoteric practices, or the intricate relationship between human consciousness and the sacred, this book offers a compelling and scholarly exploration. It's for those who ponder why some belief systems endure while others fade.

Reader rating

4.5

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Glucklich delivers a profound, albeit dense, intellectual exploration of magic’s historical prominence and subsequent decline. The text is meticulously researched, offering critical insights into the psychological and cultural forces that sustained magical belief for millennia. However, this scholarly rigor may alienate casual readers or those seeking practical occult instructions. It is not suited for individuals looking for easy answers or romanticized notions of witchcraft. Instead, it demands patience from those willing to engage with complex sociological arguments about why organized religion thrives while magic fades.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Glucklich offers a scholarly, comparative analysis rather than an advocacy or condemnation. The aim is to understand magic's nature, history, and present condition from an academic perspective.

No, this is a philosophical and historical inquiry into the concept and practice of magic, not a grimoire or a how-to guide for spellcraft or ritual. It examines *what* magic is, not *how* to do it.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Magic and Religion Compared

The book intricately charts the parallel historical paths of magic and religion, highlighting their often-intertwined origins and functions in human society. It scrutinizes how these two systems of belief and practice, once virtually indistinguishable, gradually diverged and how their societal roles transformed over time, leading to magic's current marginalized status.

Defining the Essence of Magic

Glucklich undertakes a rigorous philosophical inquiry into what constitutes 'magic' itself. Moving beyond superficial definitions, the author explores magic as a distinct mode of thought, action, and belief, examining its internal logic and its relationship to causality, intention, and efficacy across diverse cultural contexts, offering a fresh perspective on its core identity.

The Decline of Magical Praxis

This work thoughtfully investigates the reasons behind magic's perceived decline in contemporary society. It probes the cultural, scientific, and philosophical shifts that have contributed to its erosion, contrasting this with religion's continued societal relevance. The book posits that this isn't merely a loss of practice but a profound reorientation of human understanding of power and agency.

📜 Historical context

This work stands within a long tradition of scholarship that seeks to understand magic not as superstition, but as a legitimate human endeavor. It builds upon foundational comparative studies in religion and anthropology, offering a contemporary lens to re-evaluate magic's place in the intellectual history of humankind, positioning it alongside critical analyses of belief systems from Frazer to Durkheim.

📚 Glossary

Animism
Sympathetic Magic
Comparative Religion

📔 Questions to reflect on

Reflect on a time you experienced something you might describe as 'magical.' How does that personal experience align or conflict with the academic definitions of magic discussed in the book?
Consider the societal functions that magic once fulfilled. What institutions or practices in modern society have taken over these roles, and what has been gained or lost in the process?
If magic is indeed 'ending,' what does that signify for humanity's understanding of the unseen, the unknown, and our place within a larger cosmos?