Something to Think About

King James, he of the principal English version of Bible, a commissioned work, actually did write concerning religious themes but interestingly, focused on demons.

The following excerpts from Wikipedia (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemonologie) is instructive:

Daemonologie, In Forme of a Dialogue, Divided into three Books: By the High and Mighty Prince, James &c. — was written and published in 1597 by King James VI of Scotland (later also James I of England) as a philosophical dissertation on contemporary necromancy and the historical relationships between the various methods of divination used from ancient Black magic. This included a study on demonology and the methods demons used to trouble men while touching on topics such as werewolves and vampires. It was a political yet theological statement to educate a misinformed populace on the history, practices and implications of sorcery and the reasons for persecuting a witch in a Christian society under the rule of canonical law. This book is believed to be one of the primary sources used by William Shakespeare in the production of Macbeth. Shakespeare attributed many quotes and rituals found within the book directly to the Weird Sisters, yet also attributed the Scottish themes and settings referenced from the trials which King James was involved.

So, how should that impact Christian reliance on the more famous work he commissioned? Should those who rely on the King James Version of the Bible also accept the authority and accuracy of the Daemonologie, and thus belief in vampires and werewolves and witchcraft, etc.?

What does this say about the numerous Protestant religions whose basis is that singular treatise and their concurrent acceptance, in many if not most cases, of modern scientific rejection of beings such as werewolves and vampires, etc.?

Something to think about.
_______

© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s