{"product_id":"disenchanting-albert-the-great-the-life-and-afterlife-of-a-medieval-magician-9780271097442","title":"Disenchanting Albert the Great: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Magician","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlbert the Great (1200-1280) was a prominent Dominican friar, a leading philosopher, and the teacher of Thomas Aquinas. He also endorsed the use of magic. Controversial though that stance would have been, Albert was never punished or repudiated for what he wrote. Albert's reception followed instead a markedly different course, leading ultimately to his canonization by the Catholic Church in 1931. But his thoughts about magic have been debated for centuries. \u003ci\u003eDisenchanting Albert the Great\u003c\/i\u003e takes Albert's contested reputation as a case study for the long and complex history surrounding the concept of magic and magic's relationship to science and religion. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the centuries, Albert was celebrated for his magic, or it was explained away--but he was never condemned. In the fifteenth century, members of learned circles first attempted to distance Albert from magic, with the goal of exonerating him of superstition, irrationality, and immorality. \u003ci\u003eDisenchanting Albert the Great\u003c\/i\u003e discusses the philosopher's own understanding of magic; an early, adulatory phase of his reputation as a magician; and the three primary strategies used to exonerate Albert over the centuries. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the end, \u003ci\u003eDisenchanting Albert the Great\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of a thirteenth-century scholar who worked to disenchant the natural world with his ideas about magic but who himself would not be disenchanted until the modern era. This accessible and insightful history will appeal to those interested in Albert the Great, Catholic Church history, the history of magic, and Western understandings of the natural and the rational over time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eDavid J. Collins, S.J., \u003c\/strong\u003eis Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University. He is the editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Sacred and the Sinister: Studies in Medieval Religion and Magic\u003c\/i\u003e, also published by Penn State University Press.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penn State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50929184145682,"sku":"9780271097442","price":60.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0e98c265-7222-4ed9-89a5-aece91ddd83a.jpg?v=1739035203","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/disenchanting-albert-the-great-the-life-and-afterlife-of-a-medieval-magician-9780271097442","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}