Introduction

The formal difference between the historical (Part I) and the academic sources (Parts II to IV) presented in this volume is that the latter are written by academics (i.e., members of a modern university or college). The University of Berlin, founded in 1810 by Wilhelm von Humboldt, is often cited as an influential model of the modern university where research became the guiding force rather than lecturing. One of the luminaries of that university was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (b. 1770; d. 1831), who was appointed to the chair of philosophy in 1816 and became its rector in 1830. At the university, Hegel delivered lecture series on many topics, including the philosophy of history and the philosophy of religion (published posthumously). In the latter lectures he devoted some attention to “Zauberei” (“sorcery”, but rendered as “magic” in the English translation edited by Peter C. Hodgson [1987]). Randall Styers (2004: 66) reviews the impact of Hegel's lectures as follows: “The fundamental components of Hegel's account of magic will be rehearsed repeatedly throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: magic marks the boundary of religion […]; magic is largely a local, ethnic phenomenon; magic is based on unconstrained and arbitrary desire and wilfulness; magic lacks any notion of transcendence and universality; magic is linked essentially to non-European peoples, even though it maintains an inexplicable allure even in higher culture”.