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Why the Reformation Did Not Bring Disenchantment?
In Max Weber’s article ‘Disenchantment, Enchantment, and Re-Enchantment’ he talks about the link between Protestantism and the elimination of magical and supernatural forces in the world. He believed that, along with Enlightenment, the Reformation was a powerful catalyst of a great historic process, he called ‘the disenchantment of the world’, where the magic withers away, leaving only a disenchanted nature or feeling behind. Weber argues that the world became more rationalized, as there was a decline in magic and ritual. Weber believed a disenchantment occurred because Europe was becoming modern, more scientific, and culturally Westernizing, the adaptation of Western culture allowed the natural world to be more predictable and less mysterious.
A key foundation of Max Weber’s theory of disenchantment was the separation of magic and religion. This did not mean the rejection of religious belief, but a separation of the two; a distinction that Max Weber believed had been blurred before the Reformation. He believed the Reformation removed this ambiguity out of Christian religion by removing the ‘magical’ elements. For example, he believed that disenchantment eliminated the idea that religious rituals were automatically effective, that material objects could be given any sort of sacred power, or that human action could have any type of supernatural effect. The distinction between religion and magic appears to be clear-cut and is a major supporting principle. However, I question whether this distinction holds up upon closer scrutiny.
Whether the Reformation led to disenchantment is widely debated. Discussion in Scribner’s article implies that the occurrence of disenchantment among Protestants and Catholics is debatable. According to Max Weber, disenchantment did not occur for either Protestants or Catholics. There was not a disconnect of magic and religion, as Scribner discusses in ‘The Reformation, Popular Magic, and the ‘Disenchantment of the World’’. Protestants continued to engage in “cultural practices that could be classified as magic to which the institutionalized church was unambiguously hostile. These included divination, astrology, magical medicine, love magic, the invocation of demons and the dead, and other forms of the magical arts”.
Many counterarguments oppose Weber’s belief in disenchantment. Protestants still believed in sacramental elements, including omens, prophecies, signs, portents, and miracles during the time of the Reformation. Because the sacraments were used daily by the people and their powers were almost seen as automatic and not under the control of the institutional church, they could easily be labeled as magic. This clearly shows that Protestants continued to integrate elements of magic and ritual into their everyday life. They have earned the designation of ‘the magic of the late-medieval church’ and attracted the scorn and hostility of the Protestants during this time.
Robert Scribner notes in his article ‘The Reformation, Popular Magic, and the ‘Disenchantment of the World’’, that Protestants still had belief in demonic entities, which created many problems and fear among them. Protestants would usually resort to consulting with magic practitioners and sometimes rituals to deal with and wash away the demons. The use of magic practitioners and similar ‘treatments’ such as exorcisms by Protestants to remove these ‘evil spirits’ and to fight their vulnerability that they felt by the demonic presence imply that Protestants still believed in magic and miracles. It is assumed that magic practitioners incorporated aspects of magic, signs, and miracles into their practice. The act or ritual of exorcism could be taken to have magical protective powers and the blessing of a child could be seen to impart a sacred power. Many of these magico-medical healing techniques were dependent on the invocation of Christian sacred power. Therefore, the security that Protestants felt through the use of magic practitioners and other treatments counteracted Weber’s presumed belief in a decline of magic and a less mysterious world. Thus, another ambiguity between religion and magic could be based on notions such as the healing power of prayer and misguided superstitious invocation of Christ.
The same argument that the Reformation did not derive the disenchantment could also be applied to Catholics during Europe’s early modern period. Before the Reformation, it was very common for Catholics to believe in the spiritual realm and ritualistic practices. In the article ‘The Reformation, Popular Magic, and the ‘Disenchantment of the World’’ by Robert Scribner, it is discussed that Catholics did not appear to experience a disconnect between magic and religion. Scribner discusses that initial attempts by Reformers during the Reformation to reform or abolish blessings, consecration, and other forms of the ritual had been shown as being not effective enough to the point of completely abolishing blessings and similar rituals.
During the time during the Reformation, Catholics appeared to have adopted different uses of sacramentals, rituals, and blessings as a way of managing and handling their beliefs and the revolving world around them, rather than using them for sacred purposes. These are ritual blessings of certain elements or objects used in worship. Examples include the holy water and salt used in the baptismal ceremony, rosary crucifixes, medals, and statues of saints and scapulars. They can also be rituals such as an exorcism, a means by which evil spirits were expelled from the body, and the most common sacrament, the sign of the cross. Indeed, Scribner notes that although this was the case for Catholics during the time of the Reformation, “…this did not remove the popular desire some kind of desire for some kind of instrumental application of sacred power to deal with the exigencies of daily life” (Scribner, 1993, pg.11) For instance, Catholics commonly used church bells to protect themselves against lightning storms.
Though it is prominent both Protestants and Catholics still used different practices to cope with the world around them, it is much more noticeable among Catholics during the Early Modern Period and the Reformation.
Ultimately, I do not fully support Max Weber’s position that the Reformation led to disenchantment, I am more in line with Scribner’s idea that it drew a firmer line between magic and religion by its changed understanding of the sacraments, and its repudiation of Catholic sacramentals. The profusion of blessed objects (salt, water, palms, herbs, and so forth), that so often gave sacred meaning to the daily life of pre-Reformation Christians, largely disappeared from the lives of those of evangelical belief. Yet this did not remove the popular desire for some kind of instrumental application of sacred power to deal with the exigencies of daily life, and Protestants often turned to distinctively ‘Protestant’ remedies, using the Bible, hymnals, and prayer books for their healing and protection.
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