Wicca and the Christian heritage - Joanne Pearson

What is Wicca? Is it witchcraft, Paganism, occultism, esotericism, magic, spirituality, mysticism, nature religion, secrecy, gnosis, the exotic or 'other'? Wicca has been defined byand explored within all these contexts over the past thirty years by anthropologists, sociologists and historians, but there has been a tendency to sublimate and negate the role of Christianity in Wicca's historical and contemporary contexts.

Joanne Pearson 'prowls the borderlands of Christianity' to uncover the untold history of Wicca. Exploring the problematicnature of the Wiccan claim of marginality, it contains a groundbreaking analysis of themesin Christian traditions that are inherent in the development of contemporary Wicca. Thesefocus on the accusations which have been levelled against Catholisicm, heterodoxy and witchcraft throughout history:ritual, deviant sexuality and magic.