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The Role of Faith in Agrippan Magic

Author(s): Noel Putnik
Subject(s): History, Middle Ages, Theology and Religion
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: magic; religion; theurgy; ritual; faith; emanation; ascent; De occulta philosophi
Summary/Abstract: This essay examines Cornelius Agrippa’s understanding of magic and magical ritual, which was profoundly religious, albeit not in line with mainstream Christian theology. Through a textual analysis, I scrutinize the Neoplatonic roots of Agrippa’s theory of magic and suggest that he viewed a properly executed magical ritual as resulting in a state of rapture, or an altered state of consciousness. As part of the analysis, I explore tempting textual parallels between the suggested notion of magical rapture in Agrippa and similar concepts found in the New Testament, Plotinus, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

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