"Introduction : the meanings of medieval superstition -- The weight of tradition -- Superstition in court and cloister -- The cardinal, the confessor, and the chancellor -- Dilemmas of discernment -- Witchcraft and its discontents -- Toward disenchantment?"
This book analyzes the role of oral stories leading to witch-hunts in imperial China. It's interest is in those stories that led to the stigmatisation of certain types of beings, and often to consequent outbreaks of collective fear over larger regions. In the stories demonic cre…
The co-founder of "Skeptic" magazine explains why people are so willing to believe in mind reading, alien abductions, ghosts, and other manifestations of pseudoscience, and discusses how such wrong thinking can lead to very real danger
The co-founder of "Skeptic" magazine explains why people are so willing to believe in mind reading, alien abductions, ghosts, and other manifestations of pseudoscience, and discusses how such wrong thinking can lead to very real danger.
To read the body of a monster -- To recall the spirits past -- The shadows and their beloved bodies -- What does human mean?
"Who are the familiar spirits of classical culture and what is their relationship to Christian demons? In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, semi-gods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of th…
In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, demi-gods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of the household, the lares and penates. But Armando Maggi, an expert in Renaissance demonology, argues thro…
"The appearance of this comet caused so many panicked inquiries to be made of Pierre Bayle, one of the Enlightenment's greatest thinkers, that he decided to formally respond to them, hence the present work, which first appeared in 1682. The book's principle task was to undermine…
