Week 1

"On Witchcraft"

pg. 14-25

Although I found this reading extremely difficult to get through, I did find it interesting how Cotton Mather viewed the colonists of that time. Cotton Mather was the partor of Boston's Old North Church and he was very disturbed over the recent problems which had arisen from witchcraft. Through Mather's uneasiness over the practice of witchcraft in the new world, it is apparent that he held a high view the colonists in the New World. Mather seems to speak of the colonists as "God's chosen people" and he seems to feel that they have been sent by God on a mission to take control of the New World which has been previously ruled by Satan. Mather views the problem of withcraft as one form of an attack by Satan on God's people of the colonies. Mather introduces the idea that even those people who are saved by God may not even be safe from the torments which Satan may inflict on people. He supports his belief by making reference to Job and how God allowed Satan to torment Job. Mather explains that while God holds the souls of the saved, what is to say that God will not hand over the Christian's physical body over to the torments of Satan since, after all, the physical body is such a sinful part of a Christian.

In my opinion, I feel like Cotton Mather is taking some tall tales about witchcraft and there being a "Satan's Book" and he is using these stories as scare tactics in order to control his congregation. I know there were some weird things happening in Salem but, in my opinion, I think there could be a logical scientific explanation for the strange occurrences. Perhaps the people who were "afflicted by demons" were actually afflicted by some sort of new sickness which had not been discovered yet. Whatever the case was, I feel like if the same situation were happening in today's modern world, there would be some reasonable explanation given for the afflicted people. While I do believe that there are demons, I do not think that demon possession is something that would ever become such a widespread problem as it was believed to be back during the Salem witchcraft trials. Also, Mather makes reference to a situation where a man was trying to cast out the devil from a woman and the devil spoke directly to him in Latin. I find this hard to believe. Why would satan, a supernatural being and probably possesses the ability to speak in other languages, talk to an Englishman in something other than that man's primary language. This is another situation where I feel that Mather is using the "awe-factor" in capturing his followers.

However, I could be wrong and there could have been more that met the eye during this time period. Perhaps all the witchcraft and demon possessions stories really were true and perhaps Satan actually was fighting the Puritans as bluntly as what Mather makes it sound. If this is the case, then I can't even imagine how I would have handled the situation. I probably would have been looking for a spiritual leader like Mather who spoke about witchcraft and Satan as openly as he did. From the reading, Mather seemed to really have all the answers and perhaps that is why I would look to him in this time of desperation and fear. What about you? Do you think you would have kept your head or would you be caught up in the stories of demon possessions and demonic figures offering people to sigh "satan's book"? How would you have acted?

Favorite Quotes:

"The New-Englanders are a People of God settled in those, which were once the Devil's Territories; and it may easily be supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People here acomplishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, that He should have the Utmost Parts of the Earth for his Possession." (Pg. 14)