T.D. Whittle > Status Update

'Without a diablophany, a shattering personal encounter with a demon, the need for belief in demonic reality could never be satisfied.'

'Without demonic corporeality, there was no proof that demons were real, and thus the implication was that nature--pure matter, rather than spirit--could adequately explain everything that humans experienced.'

'The writings examined here demonstrate that witchcraft theorists and other early-modern intellectuals inherited two frightful anxieties from Aquinas: they feared the power of the human imagination, and they dreaded the concept of nature sufficed to account for the world around us. If natural causes adequately explain our experience, there is no need for the supernatural, and we may have simply imagined it. '

This book is fascinating but quite intense reading. Just a heads up: This is an academic work. The cover and title make it look like Gothic erotica, but it's not at all, so don't buy it if that's what you are looking for. It's a very deep look into the thinking that lead to the killing of "witches" between 1400 and 1700, in England, and although I've already studied this a bit I am learning surprising new things.