In Memorium Maleficarum: Feminist and Pagan Mobilizations of the Burning Times

BIBLICAL PORN: AFFECT, LABOR, and PASTOR MARK DRISCOLL'S EVANGELICAL EMPIRE. By JessicaJohnson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018. Pp. 248. Paper, $25.95.

“…Confessions serve not as individual catharsis, but as a continuous source of titillation and oppositional excitement, indirect mimesis (Frankfurter 2005, following Tausig 1993. Driscoll is, in essence, participating in a sexualized political economy not unlike morality-tale, witch-sabbat rumors in early modern Europe, supposedly shocking sexual violence entertainment such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-present) and Game of Thrones (2011Thrones ( -2019, and conspiracy theories such as Satanic Panics and "pizza gate" (Frankfurter 2005;Zwissler 2016Zwissler , 2018a. Decrying the dangers of porn, Driscoll uses the fear he invokes to extract sexual confessions, which he then appropriates and distributes.…”

In the Study of the Witch: Women, Shadows, and the Academic Study of Religions

“…Their reverence for this most fundamental of powers would have evolved into personification and honoring, which in turn, would have reinforced their core values of respect for all life as interconnected, peace practices, as opposed to violence and war, and social power for women, a lifestyle that she summarizes as matriarchal (Gimbutas 1991). Her theories have been deeply inspiring for several generations of spiritual feminists searching for alternatives to mainstream, androcentric religious traditions (e.g., Christ (1997Christ ( , 2005Eisler 1987;Starhawk [1979] 1999; see also Eller (1993Eller ( , 2000Eller ( , 2011; Purkiss 2005;Ruether 2005;Zwissler (2016aZwissler ( , 2016b).…”

“…Wicca extended beyond Gardner's initiation circle and diffused into diverse forms of contemporary Witchcraft. Many of those strands were reinvented or significantly changed by contact with North American feminist movements, including the spiritual feminism that embraces narratives of matriarchal prehistory (Hutton 1999;Salmonsen 2002;Magliocco 2004;Clifton 2006;Zwissler (2016aZwissler ( , 2016b). The results are a fusing of the two narratives into a worldview of improving women's current social status, and ending systems of domination more broadly, through reclaiming women's proper spiritual power.…”

“…As long as androcentric narratives about the origin of religion continue to gloss over women as full humans, agents, and practitioners, some of them, and their allies, will continue to tell parallel stories. Women, LGBTQ people, people of color, and others who are marginalized by dominant academic narratives create their own histories because they, like all human beings, need stories that include them as full actors and reflect their equal right to be (Purkiss 2005;Zwissler 2016a). For scholars who remain discomfited by myths of matriarchal prehistory and alternative Witchcraft narratives, a solution far better than condescending correction is to join the project of developing more inclusive scholarship, so that creative projects compensating for glaring lacunae in representation are no longer so desperately needed.…”