Models of (Re-)Enchantment

Egil Asprem’s review of Jason Josephson-Storm’s 'The Myth of Disenchantment' is a rich and informative guide, not just through a history of magical beliefs, but a history of disenchantment. Indeed, he draws attention to the fact that the history of disenchantment is at the same time the history of re-enchantment. That is, in response to Max Weber’s “disenchantment of the world” thesis, there have been various attempts to re-enchant the world, not least by arguing that it did not become disenchanted in the first place—hence why I refer to such responses as (re‑)enchantment.