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Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age
We live in a secular age, a world dominated by science and technology. Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairy tales behind, culturally and personally. Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world--in the West, at least--has become increasingly disenchanted. While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues that it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God. The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. Hunting Magic Eels shows us that with attention and an intentional, cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age. This new paperback edition includes a foreword from Sean Palmer as well as four new, additional chapters, including "Why Good People Need God," "Live Your Beautiful Life," and "The Primacy of the Invisible."
301 pages, Paperback
Published January 2, 2024
90 people are currently reading
904 people want to read
About the author
Richard Beck
8 books116 followersDr. Richard Beck is a Professor of Psychology at Abilene Christian University, and he is the author of the popular blog Experimental Theology: The Thoughts, Articles and Essays of Richard Beck and the books The Slavery of Death, Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality and The Authenticity of Faith: The Varieties and Illusions of Religious Experience. As an experimental psychologist and a practicing Christian, he attempts in his writing "to integrate theology with the experimental social sciences."
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Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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October 27, 2021
I found that the introductory chapters did a good enough job diagnosing the problem of modernity, of disenchantment and the need for reenchantment. This problem is not new to me and is one of the largest reasons for me to be drawn toward Orthodoxy. I've found the topic much better covered elsewhere (such as the podcast entitled 'Lord of Spirits'). I didn't find Beck's solution to these problems to be terribly compelling in and of themselves. I found myself constantly desiring a deeper, more rooted presentation of the topics he discussed. Thankfully, I've encountered those answers in my studies and experiences within Orthodoxy.
I couldn't help but note his constant and incessant cribbing of Catholic and Orthodox sources (without giving full due to that fact). Merton, Tolkien, Brother Lawrence, Fr Stephen Freeman, St Ignatius of Loyola, Pascal, St Francis of Assisi, St Patrick, Dostoevsky make up the meat of the book, and all are either Catholic or Orthodox (and most of whom are post-reformation, so they had the option not to be). Given how heavily Beck relied on these sources, I am honestly left a bit confused about why he spoke so highly (especially) of Catholicism while stating he has no problems with his Protestant faith; I found his arguments to be most compelling towards an ancient, liturgical faith. Despite that, the "Liturgical Enhancement" chapter is frustratingly short and doesn't even really touch on liturgy itself, speaking mainly about the importance of the church calendar, touching only in briefest passing on iconography, and entirely skipping topics like liturgical prayer or the Eucharist. In fairness, he does address these latter two topics elsewhere. That chapter concludes with exhortation to fill your life with icons and to practice the liturgical year, but this falls disappointingly short of the type of "Liturgical Enchantment" I know is possible.
The "Contemplative Enchantment" chapter speaks exclusively of Catholic and Orthodox prayer practice. Beck quotes David Foster Wallace on the importance of being present to every moment, which is great, but when disconnected from anything higher, being present doesn't save you from yourself. I hate to make this point too glibly, but modeling one's faith on something an atheist can do in a grocery store checkout line seems worryingly unrooted. Beck makes the point earlier that so much of today's mental health issues are rooted in disenchantment, but it seems a reenchantment rooted in the self (and not the life of the Church) remains dangerous, especially given Wallace's own advice did not save him from his eventual truly unfortunate fate. Ultimately, I don't think Beck goes far enough in moving any of these practices to the roots of the faith.
His discussion of the Eucharist (and Catholicism in general) is a bit confounding, to be honest. He speaks very highly of his time at Catholic schools, has a solid grasp of how and why the Catholic worldview is more enchanted (and inherently so) than the Protestant. He blames Protestantism/Luther for triggering the original disenchantment (pg 25-26). He talks about how the Eucharist itself is the linchpin of enchantment, that Catholics go to mass every time to experience a miracle, even quoting Flemming Rutlidge in saying "if the Eurcharist is just a symbol, then to hell with it." He never gives any sort of argument in favor of remaining Protestant despite the shortcomings he outlines (and despite the rest of the book relying so heavily on Catholic/Orthodox sources).
The overwhelming sentiment I'm left with in reading this book is I agree with almost everything Beck is saying, except that he inexplicably holds onto his protestant foundations while picking the fruit from the ancient faith trees. I have found myself in the exact same situation, but I've come to different conclusions. [I don't want to delve into the Catholic vs Orthodox debate here, suffice to say I find Orthodoxy far more compelling, but I'll just reference the Ancient Faith tree rather than drawing distinction] It seems Beck is okay with continuing to harvest the fruit from the Ancient Faith tree while remaining Protestant, whereas when I look at the Protestant Tree and I do indeed see some fruit, but when I look closer, I notice that so very much of it is actually fruit harvested from the Ancient Faith tree and has been taped back up onto the Protestant Tree. I can't help but look at the pile of fruit Beck is referencing in this book and think "why would I not want to go to the tree that produced this?" In fact, the massive reliance on Ancient Faith sources (including modern examples like Merton, Tolkien, Fr. Freeman, his own catholic schooling, etc) is indicative of the lack of such fruit from the Protestant tree.
I can't help but think "this fruit is here explicitly due to the tree it grew from, not despite it." Why eat from a trough-style buffet made of my own choosing when I could be fed the same meal as the ancient Fathers? [This rings true for me both in general "practices', but ultimately and most importantly in the Eucharist]. Beck's approach seems inherently individualistic and modern, despite him purportedly arguing for the opposite. In chapter 10, he criticizes the "spiritual but not religious" crowd for being able to pick and choose the spirituality they want without a transcendent referent above them. "One of the most noteworthy features of modern-day 'spirituality' is how eclectic it is, how you choose it. In the modern spiritual marketplace, you pick your enchantment, like shopping for deals at Walmart." I can't help but want to shout at Beck "but that's exactly what you're doing!" by picking and choosing the spiritual practices that seem to jive with where you're at right now while rejecting the whole rest of the Tradition of the Church that gave them to you. We want the fruit without the roots. It seems to me that only way to escape the problem of individualistic modernism is to do something truly revolutionary, something an ancient would do, to submit to a universal community dedicated to living out "the right way", a path walked and proven effective for nearly 2000 years, replete with its liturgy and ritual and 'superstition' that has produced the type of fruits that others would want to pick and borrow, though I suspect the hearty fruit is only grown through submission to those ingredients we otherwise wouldn't ourselves choose from the buffet.
Beck makes only the briefest of mention of life in community with peers, or to submission to spiritual fathers (or mothers). Again, it is easy to pick and choose from the buffet when no one is telling you to eat your greens (or, more accurately, to fast).
I couldn't help but note his constant and incessant cribbing of Catholic and Orthodox sources (without giving full due to that fact). Merton, Tolkien, Brother Lawrence, Fr Stephen Freeman, St Ignatius of Loyola, Pascal, St Francis of Assisi, St Patrick, Dostoevsky make up the meat of the book, and all are either Catholic or Orthodox (and most of whom are post-reformation, so they had the option not to be). Given how heavily Beck relied on these sources, I am honestly left a bit confused about why he spoke so highly (especially) of Catholicism while stating he has no problems with his Protestant faith; I found his arguments to be most compelling towards an ancient, liturgical faith. Despite that, the "Liturgical Enhancement" chapter is frustratingly short and doesn't even really touch on liturgy itself, speaking mainly about the importance of the church calendar, touching only in briefest passing on iconography, and entirely skipping topics like liturgical prayer or the Eucharist. In fairness, he does address these latter two topics elsewhere. That chapter concludes with exhortation to fill your life with icons and to practice the liturgical year, but this falls disappointingly short of the type of "Liturgical Enchantment" I know is possible.
The "Contemplative Enchantment" chapter speaks exclusively of Catholic and Orthodox prayer practice. Beck quotes David Foster Wallace on the importance of being present to every moment, which is great, but when disconnected from anything higher, being present doesn't save you from yourself. I hate to make this point too glibly, but modeling one's faith on something an atheist can do in a grocery store checkout line seems worryingly unrooted. Beck makes the point earlier that so much of today's mental health issues are rooted in disenchantment, but it seems a reenchantment rooted in the self (and not the life of the Church) remains dangerous, especially given Wallace's own advice did not save him from his eventual truly unfortunate fate. Ultimately, I don't think Beck goes far enough in moving any of these practices to the roots of the faith.
His discussion of the Eucharist (and Catholicism in general) is a bit confounding, to be honest. He speaks very highly of his time at Catholic schools, has a solid grasp of how and why the Catholic worldview is more enchanted (and inherently so) than the Protestant. He blames Protestantism/Luther for triggering the original disenchantment (pg 25-26). He talks about how the Eucharist itself is the linchpin of enchantment, that Catholics go to mass every time to experience a miracle, even quoting Flemming Rutlidge in saying "if the Eurcharist is just a symbol, then to hell with it." He never gives any sort of argument in favor of remaining Protestant despite the shortcomings he outlines (and despite the rest of the book relying so heavily on Catholic/Orthodox sources).
The overwhelming sentiment I'm left with in reading this book is I agree with almost everything Beck is saying, except that he inexplicably holds onto his protestant foundations while picking the fruit from the ancient faith trees. I have found myself in the exact same situation, but I've come to different conclusions. [I don't want to delve into the Catholic vs Orthodox debate here, suffice to say I find Orthodoxy far more compelling, but I'll just reference the Ancient Faith tree rather than drawing distinction] It seems Beck is okay with continuing to harvest the fruit from the Ancient Faith tree while remaining Protestant, whereas when I look at the Protestant Tree and I do indeed see some fruit, but when I look closer, I notice that so very much of it is actually fruit harvested from the Ancient Faith tree and has been taped back up onto the Protestant Tree. I can't help but look at the pile of fruit Beck is referencing in this book and think "why would I not want to go to the tree that produced this?" In fact, the massive reliance on Ancient Faith sources (including modern examples like Merton, Tolkien, Fr. Freeman, his own catholic schooling, etc) is indicative of the lack of such fruit from the Protestant tree.
I can't help but think "this fruit is here explicitly due to the tree it grew from, not despite it." Why eat from a trough-style buffet made of my own choosing when I could be fed the same meal as the ancient Fathers? [This rings true for me both in general "practices', but ultimately and most importantly in the Eucharist]. Beck's approach seems inherently individualistic and modern, despite him purportedly arguing for the opposite. In chapter 10, he criticizes the "spiritual but not religious" crowd for being able to pick and choose the spirituality they want without a transcendent referent above them. "One of the most noteworthy features of modern-day 'spirituality' is how eclectic it is, how you choose it. In the modern spiritual marketplace, you pick your enchantment, like shopping for deals at Walmart." I can't help but want to shout at Beck "but that's exactly what you're doing!" by picking and choosing the spiritual practices that seem to jive with where you're at right now while rejecting the whole rest of the Tradition of the Church that gave them to you. We want the fruit without the roots. It seems to me that only way to escape the problem of individualistic modernism is to do something truly revolutionary, something an ancient would do, to submit to a universal community dedicated to living out "the right way", a path walked and proven effective for nearly 2000 years, replete with its liturgy and ritual and 'superstition' that has produced the type of fruits that others would want to pick and borrow, though I suspect the hearty fruit is only grown through submission to those ingredients we otherwise wouldn't ourselves choose from the buffet.
Beck makes only the briefest of mention of life in community with peers, or to submission to spiritual fathers (or mothers). Again, it is easy to pick and choose from the buffet when no one is telling you to eat your greens (or, more accurately, to fast).
May 25, 2021
Dr Richard Beck calls us to re-attend to what matters most in an excellent and highly readable account of how we drifted away from our spiritual roots and how we might get back.
Dr Beck takes us on a fascinating tour of ideas and events in western history, which have lead to a spiritual malaise: viewing the cosmos as a machine, developing a cult of self, and following dead ends like 'happiness', when taken as an ultimate concern. Richard describes the nature of the existential 'ache' we feel, critiques the mis-enchantments which pretend to fulfil us, and helps us see the genuine answer to the 'ache'. With careful discernment, he condemns 'the virtues run amok', as described by G.K. Chesterton, and competently refocuses our attention on the true and living God Who, despite reports to the contrary, has not gone anywhere.
In addressing a 'skeptical age', Richard is responding to the complex works of Charles Taylor, most famous for his huge 'A Secular Age', and pastor Andrew Root.
Following in the tradition of JRR Tolkien, Flannery O'Connor, and other Christian luminaries, Dr Beck reminds us of the vital importance and character of a sacramental worldview. His focus goes beyond psychology to attend to being itself. A necessary move!
This is a high road of re-enchantment which discerns the God beyond god and is neither sentimental nor solipsistic: an antidote to expressive individualism and tribalism in equal measure.
Beck strikes a healthy balance, which respects sacraments and sacramental living without making them idols. Protestants will be happy that the Word is still central and Hunting Magic Eels offers a 'mundane theology' that sees the need for the Christian restoration of the whole cosmos. He is not seeking a return to the middle ages. Therefore, Richard's book complements the vital work of Fr Alexander Schmemann amongst Orthodox, David Fagerberg amongst Catholics, and Peter Leithart amongst Protestants.
Beck attends to the challenges of today, by taking what is good from the past, after interrogating and correcting previous abuses, and offers considerable nuance in different directions.
Like Nancy Pearcey's brilliant books and Gene Veith's profound wrestles with 'Post-Christian' living, Hunting Magic Eels is more than a desire for a kind of Christian 'romanticism' or compartmentalising of the 'sacred' and the 'secular'.
The goal is 'total truth' and cultivating enchantment as a general habit for all round good living. Hunting Magic Eels proclaims the good news with passion for a new dis/mis-enchanted generation. Let's think, and feel, and look, and pray again.
See my interview with Dr Beck here for a synopsis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53DPA...
Dr Beck takes us on a fascinating tour of ideas and events in western history, which have lead to a spiritual malaise: viewing the cosmos as a machine, developing a cult of self, and following dead ends like 'happiness', when taken as an ultimate concern. Richard describes the nature of the existential 'ache' we feel, critiques the mis-enchantments which pretend to fulfil us, and helps us see the genuine answer to the 'ache'. With careful discernment, he condemns 'the virtues run amok', as described by G.K. Chesterton, and competently refocuses our attention on the true and living God Who, despite reports to the contrary, has not gone anywhere.
In addressing a 'skeptical age', Richard is responding to the complex works of Charles Taylor, most famous for his huge 'A Secular Age', and pastor Andrew Root.
Following in the tradition of JRR Tolkien, Flannery O'Connor, and other Christian luminaries, Dr Beck reminds us of the vital importance and character of a sacramental worldview. His focus goes beyond psychology to attend to being itself. A necessary move!
This is a high road of re-enchantment which discerns the God beyond god and is neither sentimental nor solipsistic: an antidote to expressive individualism and tribalism in equal measure.
Beck strikes a healthy balance, which respects sacraments and sacramental living without making them idols. Protestants will be happy that the Word is still central and Hunting Magic Eels offers a 'mundane theology' that sees the need for the Christian restoration of the whole cosmos. He is not seeking a return to the middle ages. Therefore, Richard's book complements the vital work of Fr Alexander Schmemann amongst Orthodox, David Fagerberg amongst Catholics, and Peter Leithart amongst Protestants.
Beck attends to the challenges of today, by taking what is good from the past, after interrogating and correcting previous abuses, and offers considerable nuance in different directions.
Like Nancy Pearcey's brilliant books and Gene Veith's profound wrestles with 'Post-Christian' living, Hunting Magic Eels is more than a desire for a kind of Christian 'romanticism' or compartmentalising of the 'sacred' and the 'secular'.
The goal is 'total truth' and cultivating enchantment as a general habit for all round good living. Hunting Magic Eels proclaims the good news with passion for a new dis/mis-enchanted generation. Let's think, and feel, and look, and pray again.
See my interview with Dr Beck here for a synopsis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53DPA...
September 7, 2023
Really enjoyed the book! Mainly gave 4 instead of 5 stars because he gets a bit repetitive. But his overall premise is great and his diagnoses of the modern Ache is especially gripping. The modern man is full of longing, disenchantment, and skepticism and needs the fulfillment found in the enchanted faith of Christianity. From Tolkien to St. Patrick, he gives some great historic and practical examples of ways to recover the enchantment of our faith that are very compelling. I also greatly appreciated how charitable he is to various other denominations and gleans from them their practices of enchantment.
“Faith is a romance, a meeting with, in the words of Dante, ‘the Love that moves the sun and the other stars’…These ‘strange sights’ are not flights of fantasy or wishful thinking. They are the most reality-filled moments of our lives…”
“Faith is a romance, a meeting with, in the words of Dante, ‘the Love that moves the sun and the other stars’…These ‘strange sights’ are not flights of fantasy or wishful thinking. They are the most reality-filled moments of our lives…”
January 21, 2024
It is said that we live in an increasingly secular world, what some call a disenchanted world. There is much truth to this idea. However, even as institutional religion is on the decline in North America and Europe, that doesn't mean people have lost interest in spiritual things. Thus, we see increasing interest in things like astrology and yoga and meditation, as well as belief in ghosts. So, perhaps the world isn't as disenchanted as we think. Nevertheless, it is worth pondering the skepticism of religion that has defined the modern world, a world influenced to a great deal by the rationalism of the Enlightenment.
Richard Beck is a Christian psychologist and professor, who has pondered these things in several books, including a wonderfully written book titled Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted. Beck covers similar but broader territory in his book Hunting Magic Eels, which has come out as a expanded and revised paperback edition. For some reason I didn't read or review the first edition, but this time I received a review copy and dove into the book.
Like Beck I come from a tradition that is rationalist at its core --- the Stone-Campbell Movement --- though from different branches. For different reasons, our two branches have embraced a modernist/rationalist perspective that has led to a largely disenchanted faith. Beck invites us in this book to recover an enchanted faith. He uses this intriguing image of Magic Eels as part of the invitation. Back in the medieval era, in Wales, there was a well that is said to have been inhabited by magic eels that could predict one's romantic future. That well would eventually fall into disuse and disrepair, and people stopped seeking assistance in their romantic endeavors, pursuing a more rational, non-enchanted method.
Our world has become more scientific, secular, and skeptical. We are often uncomfortable with supernaturalism. In fact, many have made the rejection of supernaturalism a hallmark of their religious life. But is this wise? That is the question Beck raises. As Beck writes, "The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly affected our religious imaginations. We've lost our capacity for enchantment, our ability to see and experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives" (p. 3). So, when it comes to being a Christian, we have embraced the idea that it is intended to make us a good person. This is true of both conservatives and progressives, though what a good person looks like might differ from one pole to the other. While there is truth here, it seems that something more is required. Beck identifies the basic concern as a dealing, an ache that we as humanity are experiencing. Simply moralism isn't enough to heal the pain. With that in mind, Beck invites us to join him in "a journey to reenchant our faith in a skeptical age." (p. 15).
Beck divides the book into four parts, beginning with addressing "Attention Blindness" in three chapters. The first addresses the "slow death of God," which is the process of disenchantment that has taken place over the last 500 years or so. With that reality acknowledged, Beck moves to that ache spoken of earlier (ch. 2). That ache Beck suggests is related to the "death of God" and is revealed in the presence of anxiety, depression addiction, and other maladies. It is, he suggests, our "disenchantment with disenchantment, the unease and pain we feel without God in our lives" (pp. 43-44). The third chapter in this section speaks of "why good people need God." That is because there is a need for something deeper that heals the ache and empowers our lives.
In a sense, Part 1 lays out the problem of our age. Part 2, titled "Enchanted Faith" invites us to consider eccentric experiences, live in a one-story universe, embrace a good catastrophe, and live beautiful lives. Then in Part 3, Beck invites us to consider five ways in which we can live into "Enchanted Christianities." These include Liturgical, Contemplative, Charismatic, and Celtic Enchantments. He concludes with a chapter that explores "the primacy of the invisible." That is, it involves paying attention to the things we tend not to see, even though they might be right in front of us.
Finally, in Part 4, he speaks discernment. If we're going to seek to reenchant our world, we need some tools so we can do this with discernment, for not everything that exists in the enchanted world is good and should be reclaimed. The first thing he notes, in chapter 13, is that in many ways we've not witnessed disenchantment but enchantment shifting. We've moved from religious enchantments to "spiritual" ones. So, while he invites us to embrace a more mystical and experiential Christianity, he also recognizes there are dangers here that need to be resisted. After all, there's a lot of what he calls wacky stuff out there that isn't necessarily spiritually healthy. So, with that in mind, he invites us to embrace God's enchantment.
Beck offers us an important guidebook for a journey that can be spiritually enlivening, and yet still Christian. For that, we can be grateful.
Richard Beck is a Christian psychologist and professor, who has pondered these things in several books, including a wonderfully written book titled Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted. Beck covers similar but broader territory in his book Hunting Magic Eels, which has come out as a expanded and revised paperback edition. For some reason I didn't read or review the first edition, but this time I received a review copy and dove into the book.
Like Beck I come from a tradition that is rationalist at its core --- the Stone-Campbell Movement --- though from different branches. For different reasons, our two branches have embraced a modernist/rationalist perspective that has led to a largely disenchanted faith. Beck invites us in this book to recover an enchanted faith. He uses this intriguing image of Magic Eels as part of the invitation. Back in the medieval era, in Wales, there was a well that is said to have been inhabited by magic eels that could predict one's romantic future. That well would eventually fall into disuse and disrepair, and people stopped seeking assistance in their romantic endeavors, pursuing a more rational, non-enchanted method.
Our world has become more scientific, secular, and skeptical. We are often uncomfortable with supernaturalism. In fact, many have made the rejection of supernaturalism a hallmark of their religious life. But is this wise? That is the question Beck raises. As Beck writes, "The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly affected our religious imaginations. We've lost our capacity for enchantment, our ability to see and experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives" (p. 3). So, when it comes to being a Christian, we have embraced the idea that it is intended to make us a good person. This is true of both conservatives and progressives, though what a good person looks like might differ from one pole to the other. While there is truth here, it seems that something more is required. Beck identifies the basic concern as a dealing, an ache that we as humanity are experiencing. Simply moralism isn't enough to heal the pain. With that in mind, Beck invites us to join him in "a journey to reenchant our faith in a skeptical age." (p. 15).
Beck divides the book into four parts, beginning with addressing "Attention Blindness" in three chapters. The first addresses the "slow death of God," which is the process of disenchantment that has taken place over the last 500 years or so. With that reality acknowledged, Beck moves to that ache spoken of earlier (ch. 2). That ache Beck suggests is related to the "death of God" and is revealed in the presence of anxiety, depression addiction, and other maladies. It is, he suggests, our "disenchantment with disenchantment, the unease and pain we feel without God in our lives" (pp. 43-44). The third chapter in this section speaks of "why good people need God." That is because there is a need for something deeper that heals the ache and empowers our lives.
In a sense, Part 1 lays out the problem of our age. Part 2, titled "Enchanted Faith" invites us to consider eccentric experiences, live in a one-story universe, embrace a good catastrophe, and live beautiful lives. Then in Part 3, Beck invites us to consider five ways in which we can live into "Enchanted Christianities." These include Liturgical, Contemplative, Charismatic, and Celtic Enchantments. He concludes with a chapter that explores "the primacy of the invisible." That is, it involves paying attention to the things we tend not to see, even though they might be right in front of us.
Finally, in Part 4, he speaks discernment. If we're going to seek to reenchant our world, we need some tools so we can do this with discernment, for not everything that exists in the enchanted world is good and should be reclaimed. The first thing he notes, in chapter 13, is that in many ways we've not witnessed disenchantment but enchantment shifting. We've moved from religious enchantments to "spiritual" ones. So, while he invites us to embrace a more mystical and experiential Christianity, he also recognizes there are dangers here that need to be resisted. After all, there's a lot of what he calls wacky stuff out there that isn't necessarily spiritually healthy. So, with that in mind, he invites us to embrace God's enchantment.
Beck offers us an important guidebook for a journey that can be spiritually enlivening, and yet still Christian. For that, we can be grateful.
January 18, 2025
This is a beautiful book. I’d highly recommend for anyone feeling disillusioned or disenchanted with faith. Christianity is weird; let’s embrace the wonder.
February 20, 2022
Beck believes Western civilization has been moving from an enchanted world toward a secular, scientific, skeptical and disenchanted world. (284/334) God is everywhere but we don't see it. “This pervasive disenchantment, which affects Christians as much as nonbelievers, poses the single greatest threat to faith and the church in our post-Christian world.” (19/334) He wants us to reclaim our ability to see God everywhere. That requires retraining ourselves.
I found many thought provoking concepts in Beck's book. One was his exploration of how science has changed how we perceive our world, as a machine. Another was the impact of the Reformation in eliminating visual cues of God's presence. He also explores the shift of Christian emphasis from mystic to moral. He explores religious experiences, noting the characteristics. He explains how we can journey toward enchantment by reconnecting with some ancient Christian traditions. He also explores the liturgical, contemplative, charismatic and Celtic ways of spirituality.
Beck calls us to a more mystical and experiential Christianity. He also distinguishes the contemporary immanent enchantment from that of the Christian transcendent enchantment. Pursuing God will not lead to to a cozy place with scented candles. “God's enchantment will take you to places where you have to deal with your gag reflex.” (319/334) God's enchantment draws us to self-giving love and points us to the cross.
I think Beck is on to something very essential to the modern church. I highly recommend this thought provoking book to Christian leaders and lay people alike.
I found many thought provoking concepts in Beck's book. One was his exploration of how science has changed how we perceive our world, as a machine. Another was the impact of the Reformation in eliminating visual cues of God's presence. He also explores the shift of Christian emphasis from mystic to moral. He explores religious experiences, noting the characteristics. He explains how we can journey toward enchantment by reconnecting with some ancient Christian traditions. He also explores the liturgical, contemplative, charismatic and Celtic ways of spirituality.
Beck calls us to a more mystical and experiential Christianity. He also distinguishes the contemporary immanent enchantment from that of the Christian transcendent enchantment. Pursuing God will not lead to to a cozy place with scented candles. “God's enchantment will take you to places where you have to deal with your gag reflex.” (319/334) God's enchantment draws us to self-giving love and points us to the cross.
I think Beck is on to something very essential to the modern church. I highly recommend this thought provoking book to Christian leaders and lay people alike.
September 5, 2021
Such a beautiful book. I started reading at 5 am and just finished at lunch with a break for church online. I could not put it down. There is so much here.
August 24, 2021
This book by Richard Beck is the best and most helpful book I have read thus far in 2021. You can read my review of the book on the Mission Alive blog (https://missionalchurchplanting.org/2...).
June 18, 2022
Pushing back against the modern, materialistic view of the world. Has some good moments, but is largely unhelpful. Apparently “recovering an enchanted faith” means being a Pentecostal Roman Catholic.
May 11, 2024
Hunting Magic Eels encounters the controversial topic of disenchantment from faith and religion that is so common in our current world. There is interesting information given as to why this may be happening at increased levels, but this is probably the reason I have this a 3 instead of a 4. I was left wanting more bolstered research on the topic of why people are “leaving” faith. I enjoyed that he provided ways for those who are still connected to faith to enchant their faith again. Faith has become very materialistic and consumeristic, and we need to increase the wonder we behold with faith. I was very compelled by this. Good read, but could have more research added to the disenchantment we see in the world today.
October 15, 2021
In one of my book groups, the one where we read and discuss books of all kinds, we are in the midst of discussing: Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age by Richard Beck.
This book reminds me why I love book discussions so much. Each reader brings his or her own life to the book. The discussion brings those perspectives together to clash or harmonize, reinforce or raze, and otherwise share the wonder each person brought to the book.
The premise of the book is that the world has become disenchanted. The author tells how we became disenchanted, then tells how he, and we, could become re-enchanted.
I liked the beginning of the book, particularly connecting our disenchantment with the reformation. He makes a good case for the unintended consequences of blasting the foundations of Catholicism. In Beck's analysis, the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution are more layers of the disenchantment cake Luther and Calvin baked.
For me, the Scientific Revolution and the wonder of the Enlightenment re-enchant the world of faux spirituality that grows in a world of religion plus ignorance, but I know that makes me very marginal among believers.
I have a favorite author among those who explain relativity physics. I wrote him 25 years ago to tell him I love his book. In that book, Spacetime and Special Relativity, M. David Mermin writes a long aside explaining why fundamentalists are wrong. I also told Mermin that I am a believer and found the fact that light was the speed limit of the universe made my faith more vivid. He wrote back and told me he was working on a sequel that dropped the criticism of belief. A few year later It's About Time was published with even better illustrations of the inextricable relations of space, time and special relativity.
To return to Beck, after he makes the case for disenchantment, I found his case for re-enchantment difficult. Not what he did, but the context in which he writes. He teaches in Texas. The book was written after 80% of Evangelicals and nearly as many conservative Catholics voted for a game show host who believes himself entitled to sex with anyone he wants and has no need of forgiveness. And Beck returned to spiritual health in the company of charismatic believers. They may, as Beck says, have a grip on the reality of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that other Churches lack, but the charismatic Churches are also the source and propagators of the horrendous prophecies declaring Trump a modern day Cyrus, chosen by God to rescue the Church, and after the 2020 election, charismatic groups more than any other promote the lie that Trump won the election and will be returned to office by God. The false prophet of Revelation is clearly legion.
Can re-sacralizing spaces help re-enchant the world? It can't hurt. But I wonder what would have helped the German Christians expelled from Churches in 1935 if they had one Jewish grandparent. In this world, all spiritual practice exists in a political reality. Among the first martyrs were those who refused to worship Caesar. If a Church is enthusiastic about worship and also believes every lie from Trump's mouth (only worship does that) is it a Church. Reading about the expulsion of the Jewish believers in Holy Week 1935, I wondered if that building and congregation was a Church the following week. The definition of love that leads to that end is utterly Orwellian.
So here's my letter to Beck. No answer so far:
Richard,
I am reading your book Hunting Magic Eels at the prompting of a Orthodox Christian friend. We will be discussing it September 9 with a small group that formed beginning with ESL volunteers. Our first book "Laurus" followed the (imagined) life of a Russian monk and Holy Fool in the 15th Century. We read that book in 2016. The core of the group is parents with six kids.
That year, I felt increasing dread as the election approached. I am half Jewish (my father) from a non-religious home. I became a believer after being blinded by shrapnel in a missile explosion in 1973. But the Church, the anti-intellectual American Church, has always been difficult for me. The next year, after Charlottesville, the Church became impossible for me. I left and joined a synagogue. If Nazis can march in America chanting "Jews will not replace us" and be "fine people" according to the President.
As I read your book, I am pulled back to Holocaust narratives. As you can imagine, I was drawn to the stories of Jewish converts expelled from German Churches in 1935. Most were dead by 1945. There were 400 million people with the label Christian who lived between the Pyrenees and the Urals during the era of the Nazis. Fewer than one in a thousand actively helped Jews.
For me, a Christian who cheers Trump echoes Nuremberg. I was in Europe last month for three weeks visiting death camps. I have visited ten since 2017.
If you will allow me the cliche, is re-enchantment of our lives and personal spaces just arranging deck chairs on the Titanic?
I like your book but cannot shake the larger context of wondering what those German Jewish believers, some going back three generations, would say about re-enchanting their lives when their last days were in death camps.
If the coup had succeeded on January 6, or if the next attempt succeeds in 2024 we will be living in an authoritarian nation. And once tyranny begins, Jews are in trouble.
Neil
This book reminds me why I love book discussions so much. Each reader brings his or her own life to the book. The discussion brings those perspectives together to clash or harmonize, reinforce or raze, and otherwise share the wonder each person brought to the book.
The premise of the book is that the world has become disenchanted. The author tells how we became disenchanted, then tells how he, and we, could become re-enchanted.
I liked the beginning of the book, particularly connecting our disenchantment with the reformation. He makes a good case for the unintended consequences of blasting the foundations of Catholicism. In Beck's analysis, the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution are more layers of the disenchantment cake Luther and Calvin baked.
For me, the Scientific Revolution and the wonder of the Enlightenment re-enchant the world of faux spirituality that grows in a world of religion plus ignorance, but I know that makes me very marginal among believers.
I have a favorite author among those who explain relativity physics. I wrote him 25 years ago to tell him I love his book. In that book, Spacetime and Special Relativity, M. David Mermin writes a long aside explaining why fundamentalists are wrong. I also told Mermin that I am a believer and found the fact that light was the speed limit of the universe made my faith more vivid. He wrote back and told me he was working on a sequel that dropped the criticism of belief. A few year later It's About Time was published with even better illustrations of the inextricable relations of space, time and special relativity.
To return to Beck, after he makes the case for disenchantment, I found his case for re-enchantment difficult. Not what he did, but the context in which he writes. He teaches in Texas. The book was written after 80% of Evangelicals and nearly as many conservative Catholics voted for a game show host who believes himself entitled to sex with anyone he wants and has no need of forgiveness. And Beck returned to spiritual health in the company of charismatic believers. They may, as Beck says, have a grip on the reality of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that other Churches lack, but the charismatic Churches are also the source and propagators of the horrendous prophecies declaring Trump a modern day Cyrus, chosen by God to rescue the Church, and after the 2020 election, charismatic groups more than any other promote the lie that Trump won the election and will be returned to office by God. The false prophet of Revelation is clearly legion.
Can re-sacralizing spaces help re-enchant the world? It can't hurt. But I wonder what would have helped the German Christians expelled from Churches in 1935 if they had one Jewish grandparent. In this world, all spiritual practice exists in a political reality. Among the first martyrs were those who refused to worship Caesar. If a Church is enthusiastic about worship and also believes every lie from Trump's mouth (only worship does that) is it a Church. Reading about the expulsion of the Jewish believers in Holy Week 1935, I wondered if that building and congregation was a Church the following week. The definition of love that leads to that end is utterly Orwellian.
So here's my letter to Beck. No answer so far:
Richard,
I am reading your book Hunting Magic Eels at the prompting of a Orthodox Christian friend. We will be discussing it September 9 with a small group that formed beginning with ESL volunteers. Our first book "Laurus" followed the (imagined) life of a Russian monk and Holy Fool in the 15th Century. We read that book in 2016. The core of the group is parents with six kids.
That year, I felt increasing dread as the election approached. I am half Jewish (my father) from a non-religious home. I became a believer after being blinded by shrapnel in a missile explosion in 1973. But the Church, the anti-intellectual American Church, has always been difficult for me. The next year, after Charlottesville, the Church became impossible for me. I left and joined a synagogue. If Nazis can march in America chanting "Jews will not replace us" and be "fine people" according to the President.
As I read your book, I am pulled back to Holocaust narratives. As you can imagine, I was drawn to the stories of Jewish converts expelled from German Churches in 1935. Most were dead by 1945. There were 400 million people with the label Christian who lived between the Pyrenees and the Urals during the era of the Nazis. Fewer than one in a thousand actively helped Jews.
For me, a Christian who cheers Trump echoes Nuremberg. I was in Europe last month for three weeks visiting death camps. I have visited ten since 2017.
If you will allow me the cliche, is re-enchantment of our lives and personal spaces just arranging deck chairs on the Titanic?
I like your book but cannot shake the larger context of wondering what those German Jewish believers, some going back three generations, would say about re-enchanting their lives when their last days were in death camps.
If the coup had succeeded on January 6, or if the next attempt succeeds in 2024 we will be living in an authoritarian nation. And once tyranny begins, Jews are in trouble.
Neil
June 20, 2021
Dr. Beck's is writing a book to talk about a shift in perception with people in the US, particularly when it comes to the supernatural and the overlap with that with Christianity. (Note I want to give this book 2 1/2 stars, but alas Goodreads does not give me the option of halves.)
I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Beck's book Unlcean, and I was excited to read Hunting Magic Eels. I admit this book left me reflecting often on what Dr. Beck wrote, both because I found them helpful/thought provoking and because I struggled with what Dr. Beck didn't say.
These ideas of perception, and the ideas of whether enchantment can judge, criticize, and unsettle you really are the strengths on this book. Dr. Beck's sections on Enchanted Christianities is also a strong point of the book, especially the section on Celtic Enchantment. (I would argue a book structured around the Celtic Christianity would actually help make a more wholistic book.) There are some really good ideas here that are helpful, again that I found myself thinking about and fleshing out in my head how they incarnately applied to my context.
My first question for Dr. Beck is his diagnosis with the Disenchantment of America. I do agree that what he defines as disenchantment, a perception that the supernatural does not exist so we do not see it, is real however I am not sure this is the only or even primary reason for people turning away from churches in the US or Countries of a European Christian tradition. First my bias, I am an Anabaptist (Mennonite) Pastor who resonates strongly with the Anabaptist distinction of Christendom (Political/Power union with Christianity) and the Kingdom of God. (Note I actually hail from the Churches of Christ, and went to seminary where Dr. Beck now teaches.) There is a lot of disenchantment with a White Christianity that is tied into Power and White Supremacy in the US, among other things. This is not a bad disenchantment to me, but rather is a wonderful one for the Kingdom of God. We have a Christianity now that is really wrestling with how the Gospel of Jesus has been colonized. This does not negate the point that Dr. Beck makes in his book, but he does oversimplify the complexity of Western disenchantment with Christianity without acknowledging that he has done so.
Second, I found Dr. Beck's use of science overly simplistic. Again, there is great truth in his discussion on perception and how science can shape our perception. However this also leaves out how science has led some to enchantment of God, examples of Madeline L'Engle and Francis Collins come to mind. Again this is an argument for both/and rather than either/or. Science like Christianity is a tool, both of which shape and have abused. Dr. Beck's book would have been stronger to acknowledge that, even on a small level.
Third, I did find Dr. Beck's book focused primarily on the individual ideas of enchantment. Even with stories of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Beck focuses on a individual moment of Dr. King, where the idea of the movement of a people that captured the enchantment of a nation/world isn't really explored. Instead his focus is primarily individual. Note this isn't bad, but rather it would have been a richer view of enchantment to include both the individual and communal aspects of enchantment, how even a way of life (Such as that of Jesus') can enchant. (Note I do think Dr. Beck touches on some of the communal aspects in his chapter on Celtic Christianity, but again the main drive of this book is an individualistic view of enchantment.)
I admit the biggest challenge with Dr. Beck's book come with what it didn't say, especially regarding race. Note, I am not expecting this book to give a run down on the all the dynamics of Racism, but there are some glaring instances where Dr. Beck seems to ignore some of the larger conversations happening not only in our country, our world, and with in Christianity. This lack of engagement was rather deafening in his chapter on Good Catastrophe. There are good things in this chapter, but Dr. Beck brings in a narrative of a prison Bible study that doesn't acknowledge the complexities of the Criminal System in the US but instead articulates an attitude of being content in the state you find yourself in. This is made even more confusing with his use of “mattering” being a part of enchantment. To use the wording of mattering but to not even tip a hat to Black Lives Matter and how the Criminal System in the US is structured against people of color is a significant omission. (Note, full bias I work in a Multi Ethnic Church in Chicago that is engaged in Anti Racist work.) Again my critique is not not an either/or but rather a both/and. It would have helped Dr. Beck's book to at least acknowledge these more systemic/communal aspects with the individual aspects of his book. Both are needed.
Again, I find myself with a mixture of thoughts and emotions regarding Dr. Beck's book. There are some really good ideas here, but I also wish there weren't so narrow in focus. As someone who has been enchanted with the Way of Life of Jesus, a way of life that resonates with the cosmos, I wish there could have been more discussion on the enchantment of Anti-Racist work, of community, etc. Perhaps what Dr. Beck's book does do is give some pieces to continue this discussion of enchantment and perception in a way that addresses these ideas and more.
I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Beck's book Unlcean, and I was excited to read Hunting Magic Eels. I admit this book left me reflecting often on what Dr. Beck wrote, both because I found them helpful/thought provoking and because I struggled with what Dr. Beck didn't say.
These ideas of perception, and the ideas of whether enchantment can judge, criticize, and unsettle you really are the strengths on this book. Dr. Beck's sections on Enchanted Christianities is also a strong point of the book, especially the section on Celtic Enchantment. (I would argue a book structured around the Celtic Christianity would actually help make a more wholistic book.) There are some really good ideas here that are helpful, again that I found myself thinking about and fleshing out in my head how they incarnately applied to my context.
My first question for Dr. Beck is his diagnosis with the Disenchantment of America. I do agree that what he defines as disenchantment, a perception that the supernatural does not exist so we do not see it, is real however I am not sure this is the only or even primary reason for people turning away from churches in the US or Countries of a European Christian tradition. First my bias, I am an Anabaptist (Mennonite) Pastor who resonates strongly with the Anabaptist distinction of Christendom (Political/Power union with Christianity) and the Kingdom of God. (Note I actually hail from the Churches of Christ, and went to seminary where Dr. Beck now teaches.) There is a lot of disenchantment with a White Christianity that is tied into Power and White Supremacy in the US, among other things. This is not a bad disenchantment to me, but rather is a wonderful one for the Kingdom of God. We have a Christianity now that is really wrestling with how the Gospel of Jesus has been colonized. This does not negate the point that Dr. Beck makes in his book, but he does oversimplify the complexity of Western disenchantment with Christianity without acknowledging that he has done so.
Second, I found Dr. Beck's use of science overly simplistic. Again, there is great truth in his discussion on perception and how science can shape our perception. However this also leaves out how science has led some to enchantment of God, examples of Madeline L'Engle and Francis Collins come to mind. Again this is an argument for both/and rather than either/or. Science like Christianity is a tool, both of which shape and have abused. Dr. Beck's book would have been stronger to acknowledge that, even on a small level.
Third, I did find Dr. Beck's book focused primarily on the individual ideas of enchantment. Even with stories of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Beck focuses on a individual moment of Dr. King, where the idea of the movement of a people that captured the enchantment of a nation/world isn't really explored. Instead his focus is primarily individual. Note this isn't bad, but rather it would have been a richer view of enchantment to include both the individual and communal aspects of enchantment, how even a way of life (Such as that of Jesus') can enchant. (Note I do think Dr. Beck touches on some of the communal aspects in his chapter on Celtic Christianity, but again the main drive of this book is an individualistic view of enchantment.)
I admit the biggest challenge with Dr. Beck's book come with what it didn't say, especially regarding race. Note, I am not expecting this book to give a run down on the all the dynamics of Racism, but there are some glaring instances where Dr. Beck seems to ignore some of the larger conversations happening not only in our country, our world, and with in Christianity. This lack of engagement was rather deafening in his chapter on Good Catastrophe. There are good things in this chapter, but Dr. Beck brings in a narrative of a prison Bible study that doesn't acknowledge the complexities of the Criminal System in the US but instead articulates an attitude of being content in the state you find yourself in. This is made even more confusing with his use of “mattering” being a part of enchantment. To use the wording of mattering but to not even tip a hat to Black Lives Matter and how the Criminal System in the US is structured against people of color is a significant omission. (Note, full bias I work in a Multi Ethnic Church in Chicago that is engaged in Anti Racist work.) Again my critique is not not an either/or but rather a both/and. It would have helped Dr. Beck's book to at least acknowledge these more systemic/communal aspects with the individual aspects of his book. Both are needed.
Again, I find myself with a mixture of thoughts and emotions regarding Dr. Beck's book. There are some really good ideas here, but I also wish there weren't so narrow in focus. As someone who has been enchanted with the Way of Life of Jesus, a way of life that resonates with the cosmos, I wish there could have been more discussion on the enchantment of Anti-Racist work, of community, etc. Perhaps what Dr. Beck's book does do is give some pieces to continue this discussion of enchantment and perception in a way that addresses these ideas and more.
April 14, 2023
Beck is from the Churches of Christ and a professor at ACU. In this book he does a wonderful job covering what atheists miss from the church today: spiritualism. Our theology is important, but experiences with God fuel and encourage us. Our faith is a journey that invites us to follow without understanding fully. This is true for the past 2000 years of Christianity.
The big idea: The mystics teach us what we are missing about a purely educational faith.
The big idea: The mystics teach us what we are missing about a purely educational faith.
June 27, 2023
3 ⭐ Though this book really met me where I was and shifted some things spiritually, I think it was just one of those "right place, right time" kind of things. Others may not find it as helpful or necessary, and the book's writing/flow is just alright. I am thankful for what it did for me spiritually - might be good for those going through a spiritually dry season and aren't vehemently opposed to more charismatic/mystic elements of faith.
October 21, 2023
I was fortunate to hear Richard Beck speak recently and it was his talks that led me to read this book. Hunting Magic Eels is all about the importance of restoring our sense of wonder (or “WOW”) in regards to God and all He has done, is doing and will continue to do. I was blessed by reading this and I am re-dedicating myself to the pursuit of wonder as I relate to God!
June 19, 2023
A helpful book for anyone asking questions of their faith in a secular, disenchanted age. Combining the work of Root and Taylor but in a way that is easy to engage with alongside some helpful practical direction. I’d encourage anyone wondering about faith in the 21st century to give this a read.
August 20, 2023
This was a great book. It’s the book I didn’t realize I was looking for. I especially liked the first few chapters. It can be easy today to think pretty critically of the Christian faith, primarily the “enchantments” that come along with it. This book provides some clarity on why this aspect of the faith is important and necessary. It also discusses thoughtful ways to approach it.
I should mention that I didn’t actually read this book - I listened to it. I might have missed some points here and there so I’m hesitant to leave a critical review. That being said, I don’t have any real critiques, and I think I’d like to come back and read a few parts of it again. I’ll give it 5 stars.
I should mention that I didn’t actually read this book - I listened to it. I might have missed some points here and there so I’m hesitant to leave a critical review. That being said, I don’t have any real critiques, and I think I’d like to come back and read a few parts of it again. I’ll give it 5 stars.
November 10, 2024
This book includes some good stories, but the author seems to take the ideas too broadly for my taste. The main benefit was the several other authors he referenced. I’d rather just read them. (Charles Taylor is first on my list.)
July 12, 2021
Another approach to the secularity of our age and the inbreaking of enchantment. We must recover a sacramental ontology, an attentiveness to the holiness of all reality.
December 20, 2021
I've been an ardent reader of Beck's blog for a long time, so honestly, many of these ideas here I'd already heard from the blog. Beck is perhaps my favorite (living) theologian. I hope to read his others soon!
February 4, 2022
So many good one or two line underlineable phrases. This book explores how we live in a secular age dominated by science and technology, a difference from the world of the past where miracles and enchanted moments happened. Our world, especially Americanns, need a reenchantment so we can be enchanted by the life of Christ and experience him more fully in our lives.
January 1, 2025
Very interesting. Inspirational. And challenging at the end. Perhaps more interesting if you're protestant.
August 31, 2022
A very easy 5 stars. This book really helped me through a intellectual, spiritual, and emotional crisis this year. For those who are agnostic about God, materialists, and those Christians who struggle to bring together their spiritual beliefs and intellectual concerns, this book is balm to a wound.
Even if you skeptical, and ESPECIALLY if you are skeptical, not of just this book, but everything, PLEASE give this book a read. You don't have to agree with everything to author posits to be DEEPLY healed by this book :) Hope for skeptics, peace for the anxious, life to weary bones.
Even if you skeptical, and ESPECIALLY if you are skeptical, not of just this book, but everything, PLEASE give this book a read. You don't have to agree with everything to author posits to be DEEPLY healed by this book :) Hope for skeptics, peace for the anxious, life to weary bones.
January 23, 2023
This was such a great book for me to read where I'm at in my faith journey. I felt like it went really quickly at the beginning and made a good case that the western world has lost its enchantment due to a lack of attention and the enchantments remaining are slowly shifting. In my opinion, it slowed down near the middle and then picked back up at the the end and made some really thoughtful points.
I really liked Beck's nonjudgmental tone throughout. He had some good ideas about Catholicism and Celtic christianity being more conducive to a more enchanted faith practice than Protestantism, which makes sense, but I hadn't really thought about it before. I was raised in a Church of Christ and they don't exactly tell you to "enchant your space" in sunday school. As a result, my spirituality resides more in my head than in my heart, so parts of this book were gently convicting to me. I thought it was important at the end of the book when he talked about discerning spirits. He mentioned that it's probably a bad sign if you are having to buy your enchantments on amazon (haha) and addressed the rampant self-worship in our culture that you can observe almost anywhere at this point. I loved this passage so much: "Can your enchantment point out your selfishness and self-indulgence? Can your enchantment, be it burning sage for your spell or singing 'God Bless America' in your pew, hold a mirror up to your hypocrisy? Can your enchantment weigh your nation or political party on the scales and find it wanting?" Good stuff.
I really liked Beck's nonjudgmental tone throughout. He had some good ideas about Catholicism and Celtic christianity being more conducive to a more enchanted faith practice than Protestantism, which makes sense, but I hadn't really thought about it before. I was raised in a Church of Christ and they don't exactly tell you to "enchant your space" in sunday school. As a result, my spirituality resides more in my head than in my heart, so parts of this book were gently convicting to me. I thought it was important at the end of the book when he talked about discerning spirits. He mentioned that it's probably a bad sign if you are having to buy your enchantments on amazon (haha) and addressed the rampant self-worship in our culture that you can observe almost anywhere at this point. I loved this passage so much: "Can your enchantment point out your selfishness and self-indulgence? Can your enchantment, be it burning sage for your spell or singing 'God Bless America' in your pew, hold a mirror up to your hypocrisy? Can your enchantment weigh your nation or political party on the scales and find it wanting?" Good stuff.
April 21, 2021
The author puts so much of himself in the book it’s hard to review without feeling like you are attacking his character. I have some theological concerns but I like that he wasn’t reserved.
His book Slavery of Death now makes a lot more sense coming from a mixed bag of catholic and protestant backgrounds. This works for that book in reconciling how the sting of death and wages of sin work in tandem, however I think it is a weakness in this one as I just can’t see protestants using prayer beads and the like symbolics. (WWJD bracelets only lasted so long as a fad) I actually have seen that type of stuff drive Catholics away and towards protestant churches in fear of worshiping the created imagery itself.
What this book does do for at least some protestants is warn against CESSATIONISM! The book begs the question, “Are you sure you want the spiritual to end at the resurrection and not be there for you in the here and now?” Beware that your “enchantments” are up for scrutiny from a higher power is a great way of addressing the cessationist’s fear of making ones own dreams, visions, speaking of tongues, etc... equal to that of GOD’s word.
Overall his books work really well together and often refer back to each other making it hard to review this as a standalone.
His book Slavery of Death now makes a lot more sense coming from a mixed bag of catholic and protestant backgrounds. This works for that book in reconciling how the sting of death and wages of sin work in tandem, however I think it is a weakness in this one as I just can’t see protestants using prayer beads and the like symbolics. (WWJD bracelets only lasted so long as a fad) I actually have seen that type of stuff drive Catholics away and towards protestant churches in fear of worshiping the created imagery itself.
What this book does do for at least some protestants is warn against CESSATIONISM! The book begs the question, “Are you sure you want the spiritual to end at the resurrection and not be there for you in the here and now?” Beware that your “enchantments” are up for scrutiny from a higher power is a great way of addressing the cessationist’s fear of making ones own dreams, visions, speaking of tongues, etc... equal to that of GOD’s word.
Overall his books work really well together and often refer back to each other making it hard to review this as a standalone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2022
What a marvelous book. Richard Beck does such a great job at outlining how the problems that we experience on the far side of the enlightenment lies in ejecting echantment, spirituality, and wonder, not just out of the world, but also out of our faith. He then goes on to make a strong case for recovering that lost enchanted faith in a post-enlightenment world.
July 5, 2022
I can read Beck's books all the time. One of the reasons I read these books is to remind myself ( a very cognitive theological think horse) to shut up and take in the world. TO stop thinking about the metaphysical and experience the supernatural reality within and through me. This book, like the past few I've read by Beck, reminded me to be enchanted. Strangely enough, this cognitive-focused theologian is enchanted quite easily, I just often don't allow myself to emotionally feel the enchantment and that was the beauty of this book's timing. Interestingly I found the criticism the book doles out to both the more reformed and then the SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) crowd something very serious to think about. As more and more people I know that are becoming (SBNR) I have found books like SELLING SPIRITUALITY, and McMindfulness to remind me that the consumeristic spirit is an almost universal attachment. I appreciate Beck brings us a kind way to face some of these particularized issues and then to recognize that creation is not a transaction and neither is grace in Christ.
Read
February 19, 2024Progressive Christianity these days often finds itself gripped by the twin pincers of social justice moralism on one side and anger at fundamentalism on the other. Beck shows that, even after the yoke of fundamentalism has been overthrown, there is still plenty of beauty and wonder in the Christian faith if we’re open to it—and if we’re willing to slip out of that pincer grip.
I read this book at just the right time. I’m grateful to Beck for helping me see a way forward that doesn’t have to obsess about fundamentalist wounds and doesn’t succumb to reducing faith to moralism. It turns out there’s still a lot to enchant in the skeptical age we live in.
I read this book at just the right time. I’m grateful to Beck for helping me see a way forward that doesn’t have to obsess about fundamentalist wounds and doesn’t succumb to reducing faith to moralism. It turns out there’s still a lot to enchant in the skeptical age we live in.
January 30, 2023
Such a good book! One of my favorite lyrics is “if ever I can’t see the magic around me, please take my hands off my eyes”. This book takes the hands of your eyes so you can see God on life. If you have gone through a period of deconstruction or struggle with doubts this book so for you. It helps you rebuild a relationship with God by finding the enchantments in life that connect you to Him. I highly recommend it.
December 13, 2023
Summary: A discussion of the problem of disenchantment in Christianity.
It has been several years since I have picked up one of Richard Beck's books. I am a fan of his and would highly recommend the previous books I have read: Unclean (about hospitality), Slavery of Death (about the power of sin), Reviving Old Scratch (about the importance of the concept of evil) and Trains, Jesus and Johnny Cash (a gospel according to type of book).
Primarily, Hunting Magic Eels is about the problem of disenchantment in the modern world. There is an irony that we are disenchanted with Christianity, but not necessarily all enchantment (crystals, ghosts, etc.) He describes the problem well and in a way that others also have lamented. The traditional distant God as a watchmaker who created but is no longer needed or God in a two-story world (God exists but doesn't interact except occasionally) is insufficient for historic Christianity.
Karl Rahner, in a famous sermon he preached in literal rubble at the end of the Second World War, has an even more famous quote: "The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will not exist at all." I read that sermon on mysticism in a class. What Rahner meant there was mystic in the sense of enchantment. A disenchanted Christianity is a purely intellectual or moral system. But Christianity, while having intellectual and moral aspects, believes that God is real and is relational. A religious system that is only moral and/or intellectual has ceased to be Christian because it has removed the relational aspects from the faith. This is the positive sense of the quote, "Christianity is about a relationship, not a religion."
One of the questions not brought up, but which I think is important, is for Christians who have not had some mystical experience. Alan Jacobs grappled with this in a blog post, which I cannot find now. And this book is weaker for not having grappled with it.
But the main focus is trying to facilitate enchantment by spiritual and corporate practices, such as paying attention, spiritual direction, Ignatius, etc.
Beck's overly rationalistic faith was revitalized by being with people unlike him (prison ministry) and in a church-oriented toward charismatic and pentecostal practices. He did not stop using his rational faculties, and he did not completely absorb all of the practices at his new church, but there was a new sense of being open to God in ways that he was not oriented to in his old life.
Hunting Magic Eels made something click without the book making an explicit connection. There has been an ongoing discussion about the role of understanding people who vote for Trump or who identify as Christian nationalists. It is always essential to understand the why behind people's positions. But there is some limit to self-identification; we do not always know why we do things when they are part of a larger cultural trend.
This is a silly example, but it did not just happen that a bunch of people in the 1970s loved green, yellow, and orange appliances and shag carpets. There were both technological changes that allowed for different colors to be used in manufacturing and cultural trends that helped choose which colors were chosen as popular. You may not have chosen avocado green if you had an entire color palette, but if you had three colors and the options were white, silver, and avocado green, you may have chosen the green because you did not want white or silver. If you were polled, you might have said you picked it because it was your favorite color, but a look at the broader trends can help us understand why broader trends made those options available.
In looking at the role of enchantment/disenchantment in modern life, Richard Beck rightly identifies that we want to be part of something. At least part of the desire for enchantment is an innate desire to be part of a group, movement, or identity larger than yourself. And it seems to me that at least part of the draw for Trump or Christian nationalism that those who are followers may not self-identify is the role of belonging. When we are in a disenchanted world, our sense of belonging is part of what we can do to re-enchant the world around us. David Brooks commented in an interview about his Second Mountain something that has stuck with me. Brooks said that the difference between community and tribalism is that community is built around loving something in common, while tribalism is built around hatred or opposition to a thing, person, or idea. There is an enchantment in either loving or hating something with others. One of the roles in which the church may not have taken enough of a role in discipleship is directing that love or hatred in the right direction. But it isn't simply about love/hatred; it is about encouraging people to embrace a sense of enchantment explicitly in the right things so that the need for enchantment is being met with things that are good and not through bad things.
originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/hunting-magic-eels/
It has been several years since I have picked up one of Richard Beck's books. I am a fan of his and would highly recommend the previous books I have read: Unclean (about hospitality), Slavery of Death (about the power of sin), Reviving Old Scratch (about the importance of the concept of evil) and Trains, Jesus and Johnny Cash (a gospel according to type of book).
Primarily, Hunting Magic Eels is about the problem of disenchantment in the modern world. There is an irony that we are disenchanted with Christianity, but not necessarily all enchantment (crystals, ghosts, etc.) He describes the problem well and in a way that others also have lamented. The traditional distant God as a watchmaker who created but is no longer needed or God in a two-story world (God exists but doesn't interact except occasionally) is insufficient for historic Christianity.
Karl Rahner, in a famous sermon he preached in literal rubble at the end of the Second World War, has an even more famous quote: "The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will not exist at all." I read that sermon on mysticism in a class. What Rahner meant there was mystic in the sense of enchantment. A disenchanted Christianity is a purely intellectual or moral system. But Christianity, while having intellectual and moral aspects, believes that God is real and is relational. A religious system that is only moral and/or intellectual has ceased to be Christian because it has removed the relational aspects from the faith. This is the positive sense of the quote, "Christianity is about a relationship, not a religion."
One of the questions not brought up, but which I think is important, is for Christians who have not had some mystical experience. Alan Jacobs grappled with this in a blog post, which I cannot find now. And this book is weaker for not having grappled with it.
But the main focus is trying to facilitate enchantment by spiritual and corporate practices, such as paying attention, spiritual direction, Ignatius, etc.
Beck's overly rationalistic faith was revitalized by being with people unlike him (prison ministry) and in a church-oriented toward charismatic and pentecostal practices. He did not stop using his rational faculties, and he did not completely absorb all of the practices at his new church, but there was a new sense of being open to God in ways that he was not oriented to in his old life.
Hunting Magic Eels made something click without the book making an explicit connection. There has been an ongoing discussion about the role of understanding people who vote for Trump or who identify as Christian nationalists. It is always essential to understand the why behind people's positions. But there is some limit to self-identification; we do not always know why we do things when they are part of a larger cultural trend.
This is a silly example, but it did not just happen that a bunch of people in the 1970s loved green, yellow, and orange appliances and shag carpets. There were both technological changes that allowed for different colors to be used in manufacturing and cultural trends that helped choose which colors were chosen as popular. You may not have chosen avocado green if you had an entire color palette, but if you had three colors and the options were white, silver, and avocado green, you may have chosen the green because you did not want white or silver. If you were polled, you might have said you picked it because it was your favorite color, but a look at the broader trends can help us understand why broader trends made those options available.
In looking at the role of enchantment/disenchantment in modern life, Richard Beck rightly identifies that we want to be part of something. At least part of the desire for enchantment is an innate desire to be part of a group, movement, or identity larger than yourself. And it seems to me that at least part of the draw for Trump or Christian nationalism that those who are followers may not self-identify is the role of belonging. When we are in a disenchanted world, our sense of belonging is part of what we can do to re-enchant the world around us. David Brooks commented in an interview about his Second Mountain something that has stuck with me. Brooks said that the difference between community and tribalism is that community is built around loving something in common, while tribalism is built around hatred or opposition to a thing, person, or idea. There is an enchantment in either loving or hating something with others. One of the roles in which the church may not have taken enough of a role in discipleship is directing that love or hatred in the right direction. But it isn't simply about love/hatred; it is about encouraging people to embrace a sense of enchantment explicitly in the right things so that the need for enchantment is being met with things that are good and not through bad things.
originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/hunting-magic-eels/
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