ABSTRACT

In her important recent study of early medieval magic, Valerie Flint argues that the sheer nonrationality of magic, kept within bounds, gave it positive value: “There are forces better recognized as belonging to human society than repressed or left to waste away or growl about upon its fringes … Many of our forebears knew this.” She applauds early medieval churchmen for encouraging an “unreason deeper than … reason.” To be sure, when magic outlived its usefulness, it could become superstitious and irrational, “that is, damagingly upheld,” but Flint does not recognize this decay as arguing against the benign nonrationality of magic in the early Middle Ages, the era following the initial missionary efforts in Western and Northern Europe. 1