Sorcery & Science

Sorcery & Science, Magic & Manipulation,
and Christian Charismata & Charismania

June 1, 2008, Proper 4, Yr A
Fr Aidan Jerry Hix, OSC
St Aidans Anglican Mission, Antioch, CA

Text: Matt 7.21-27
21"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

Opening-

• Elijah & Prophets of Baal
• Not All Shall Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
  
  A. Works of Spiritual Power
  
• Charismata- gifts, ministries & genuine spirituality rooted in Christ
• Charismania- manipulation, magic
• Ex: Elijah & Children of Baal- 1Kg 18.14-39
• Spirit- ruach, pneuma- inspiration & creativity, sub-creation
• Magic- manipulation
• Doctrine & Works (Jews Dogma & Christians works of service & mercy)
• Blessing & Curse- obedience or disobedience

(following notes taken from Ralph Woods "The Gospel According to Tolkien"):

B. Notes on Magic Only in the work of those who are good is there providential assurance that the world is morally ordered, and only there lies a way beyond the despair that is likely to be prompted by the hard realities of both the human and natural realms.

• malign magic- the product of a panicked despair
• offers a quick fix for the complexities of & confusions of the good creation (slow & gradual)
• Magic & divination practices condemned in the Bible
  Examples: Dt 18.9-12, Ep 3.10, Ep 6.12, Act 13.10-11
  

C. Modern sorcery gets its impetus from modern science

• serious magical endeavor began with serious scientific projects of 16th and 17th centuries
  "its desire is power in this world, domination of things and wills"
• CS Lewis, Abolition of Man- "The fact that the scientist has succeeded where the magician failed has put such a wide contrast between them in popular thought that the real story of the birth of science is misunderstood. You will even find people who write about the 16th century as if Magic were a medieval survival and Science the new thing that came in to sweep it away. Those who have studied the period know better. There was very little magic in the Middle Ages: the 16th & 17th centuries are the high noon of magic. The serious magical endeavor and the serious scientific endeavor are twins: one was sickly and died, the other strong and throve. But they are twins. They were born of the same impulse."
• magic seeks to alter the primary world- to control and master the natural world
• magic is never an art but always a technique for manipulation

D. Modern Science

• gradually replaced the chief aim of ancient philosophy & religions- to conform human life to ultimate reality by the way of wisdom, virtue, knowledge and self-control
• CS Lewis- "There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of the old, the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men- the solution is a technique....It seems to me there’s something nobler in the wisdom of earlier ages than in that of our own. Again, I don’t mean to denigrate science: science is true and it works, whereas magic isn’t and doesn’t. My point is that, by itself, scientific knowledge does not lead to a full life. We need to supplement it with knowledge from another source."
• Descartes said- "the aim of modern science is to render us masters and possessors of nature

E. Modern Technology- (a disguised form of magic)-

• seeks to put nature under its command
• speeding up its deliberate processes
• the attempt to accomplish grand ends by instant means
• Immediacy- machines & magic- to speed up, reduce labor, and reduce the gap between an idea/desire & the result or effect
• Magic of machine age- for those in a hurry, who lack patience, who cannot wait
• Winston Churchill- ours is a "dark age, made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the lights of perverted science."
• scientific researh resulting in malign by-products
• Perverted science not a Luddite- who damns & dismisses modern technology as evil & godless
• the abuse of a thing does not take away its proper use
  

F. The Means & the Ends

• the means as important as the ends
• technology must be good in themselves not merely of good ends