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1.0 out of 5 stars
History through Rationalism - an occultic view, May 24 2001
One must sometimes delve into the background of an author to acquire that person's worldview and how it molds their material, especially when the material being used for historical accounts for educational purposes. "Private Demons" a biography of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer, reveals a plethora of information about the author, including that fact that she was an occultist and active occult writer. This book is written with a religiously unilateral, occcult/rationalistic view. Despite intense political & religious controversy surrounding this story, there was an enormous amount of literature concerning broader aspects of the trials which held alternate views not relayed in many of Ms. Jackson's often innaccurate and spiritually condescending renderings of the account. Many believed the girls were commissioned by Satan to divide Christ's Kingdom through false accusations. Ms. Jackson mocks these Spiritual leaders by negating their position that the root of the dissention began with the afflicted girls and their occult involvement, and alludes that these leaders were vehicles of dissention in the community, by advocating that the colonists oppose Christian teachings. Spiritual leaders were trying to expose their belief that Satan's ploy was to sow seeds of division in the church. Ms. Jackson makes no tangential, historical reference to this fact, that spiritual leaders believed the root of the dissention began with occult involvement. Ms. Jackson omits various aspects of the afflicted girl's involvement in occult practices, and substitutes a rationalistic world view to explain the occurences. Rationalism excludes Biblical interpretations and the value of conventions and dangers of popular superstitions. Ms. Jackson does not depict occult activities utilized by the afflicted women to avoid any inference as to the validity of an alternate power. Rather, she alleges that these girls merely "pretended" to be controlled by demons, ignoring the fact that many Christian leaders strongly believed in Satanic influence surrounding these issues. You will notice that the bulk of the content provided by the author in the "afterword" section expresses her rationalistic viewpoint when she focuses heavily on demonology as a myth, and places blame for the witch trials on religious fervor and intolerance, boredom, psychological pressure, and possible physiological disorders. Ms. Jackson attempts to categorize spiritual leaders as zealots. Ms. Jackson consistently negates to include accurate historical information throughout her book. Ms. Jackson could not include this information because it would not conform to her rationalistic view. It appears that Ms. Jackson selectively utilized facts she chose to paint the picture she wanted the reader to see by flavoring the historical rendering to that of her own world view. She does this by mocking the power of Satan, and accredits belief in his existence to ignorance. By enmeshing her view within her account of the actual events, Ms. Jackson emphatically and repeatedly negates the significance of a ubiquitous entity believed in by a multitude of religions still to this day. I would not recommend this material to be used in a primary or middle school setting as is has the potential to religiously sway an immature reader. It does not qualifies as a concise, historical rendering suitable to be contained as part of the curriculum in a public school setting based on the conjectural commentaries of religiously sensitive content espoused by Ms. Jackson. This material is more suitable to a mature reader who is readily equipped to separate true historical facts from biased conjecture. Please take notice as to the origin of where this book is listed in the Classified Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, under 100 PHILOSOPHY, PARAPSYCHOLOGY AND OCCULTISM, PSYCHOLOGY, 133.4 Demonology and witchcraft. The rendering is an edited account of history through a rationalistic world view, that is condescending and offensive to any aware Christian reader.
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