Ultimately, it finds that Wesley’s statement is consistent with “giving up the bible” in someway, but that there are other biblical and societal reasons why early modern witchcraft prosecutions were truly not serving a socially or ecclesiastically productive purpose. This analysis looks at the actual source: the bible, in addition to the actual religious attitude of people during Wesley’s time in order to determine whether Wesley was correct in his suggestion. Several theologians in earlier times had posited that the bible does not specifically mention witchcraft, and made the claim that ending witchcraft prosecutions could therefore not mean that authorities were turning their backs on the bible. This paper aims to question whether or not Wesley was correct in making the assertion that giving up on witch-craft was in fact, giving up on the bible. The end of witch-hunts only served to symbolize a world that was becoming increasingly secularized, and particularly un-Christian. To him, the fact that society was dispensing with the age old sport of witch-hunting, casting out belief in maleficium, and the supernatural, also met that they were throwing out God, and turning their back on the concept of Christian society. ![]() Methodist founder John Wesley was famously quoted as saying that “Giving up witch-craft is in effect giving up the bible.” He pointed to several phenomena in saying this.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |