On the Origin, Idea, Scope, and History of Ancient and Modern Magic

where the one eternal and infinite God was worshipped not only as the master but as the creator of all nature, and not only as the Almighty but simultaneously as the All-Holy, the All-Just, and as Love itself—there, this was inherently impossible.

In the new world, therefore, Zauberglauben magic-belief, however similar it remained in its fundamental idea and tendency to the pagan one, had to assume a completely different form.

Christenthum Christianity had retained the idea of Satan from Judaism, just as the latter had previously adopted the belief in this powerful evil spirit from Parsism or Oriental dualism, and modified it according to the principles of Mosaic law, in which there could be no two equally powerful primal principles.

If magic was to occur in Christianity through the help and influence of higher powers, it could only happen through the help and influence of Satan. And so it did, in fact, occur in world history. Through its teaching that Christ had destroyed the works of the devil, it had indeed done everything to suppress magic-belief and even make it impossible. Yet it prevailed nonetheless and finally became a universal—first folk-belief and then religious belief. *)

*) It is to the highest honor of Christianity, and shows its higher, truly divine world-historical direction, that one finds absolutely nothing in the New Testament that favors magic-belief. This is truly an extraordinary phenomenon for that time. Compare this with the religious scriptures of other peoples from the ancient world, e.g., the Code of Manu,