Christian magic and ritual

Christianity has had a long, tense relationship with magic. The Church blessed objects, honoured saints and relics, performed exorcisms, and also condemned sorcery and witchcraft. Folk Christianity around the world mixes prayer, charms, holy water, saints' medals and healing rites. This page covers how Christian churches have defined, absorbed and punished magic, and how the story differs across continents. Christianity includes Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal and independent African and Asian churches, each with its own view of magic.

Blessing and the sacramental world

Catholic and Orthodox Christianity have a rich set of blessings and sacramentals: holy water, candles, medals, icons, relics and the sign of the cross. Believers hold that these work through God and the Church, not by themselves. Protestants largely rejected this system as superstition, and Pentecostals have developed their own deliverance and healing practice. The Orthodox churches give the blessing of homes, boats and fields a central place, and Catholic practice includes pilgrimage, processions and prayer to saints for specific needs, such as St Jude for hard cases.

Exorcism, witch trials and the Church

The Church has a formal rite of exorcism, used rarely and by authorised priests. European witch trials, which involved both Catholic and Protestant courts, killed tens of thousands between about 1450 and 1750. Historians such as Brian Levack stress that most trials were run by secular authorities. Modern accusations by some churches against children in parts of Africa have led to abuse. Protestant reformers broke with this system, and from the sixteenth century the burning of witches was supported by many Protestant authorities and many Catholic ones, though other clergy and judges spoke against it.

Missions and renaming

Missionaries often labelled Indigenous religions as devil worship and fetishism, and suppressed rites. In Latin America and Africa, many practices went underground or fused with Christianity: Santeria with Catholic saints, Vodou with Catholic imagery, Andean offerings with saints' days. Independent African churches and the Brazilian Spiritists grew from these meetings. Pentecostal and charismatic churches, which have grown fast in Africa, Latin America and Asia, offer healing, prophecy and deliverance as part of their worship, and are criticised by some for demonising local traditions.

Folk practice and today

Folk Christianity includes St Anthony charms for lost items, the St Christopher medal for travel, the Orthodox Easter fire, and the Mexican cult of Santa Muerte, which the Church rejects. Prosperity preaching sells faith-linked results, and some pastors charge for miracles. Scholars note that the line between religion and magic was drawn largely by Christian writers. Historians, such as Eamon Duffy and Keith Thomas, have shown that medieval Christianity was shot through with practices that later reformers redefined as magic.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Haitian Vodou: Sam Fentress, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Kardecist Spiritism: Coprosme, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Midsummer: Kora27, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

English folklore: J. R. Skelton, Public domain, source

Pentagram: Tomruen, Attribution, source

Georgian mythology: Mostafameraji, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Folk saint: Sergio Serrano, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Palo: Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Day of the Dead: RubeHM, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Pilgrimage: Ali Mansuri, CC BY-SA 2.5, source

Folk Catholicism: Calvin Hennick, for WBUR Boston, CC BY 3.0, source

Snake worship: Alexandermcnabb, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Santo Daime: Tonelada, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Holy well: The Speckled Bird, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

May Day: Bryan Ledgard, CC BY 2.0, source

Spiritual Baptist: N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Rachel's Tomb: Lane-Poole, Stanley, Public domain, source

Spiritualist church: Jim.henderson, CC0, source

Santería: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Christian: magic in this belief world