Last time I asked A.I.: Does Morello, or any scholar, posit that magic, enchantment, etc., can heal the Church's split between good and evil?
"Yes—Sebastian Morello and several contemporary scholars do suggest that re-enchantment, mysticism, and even 'sacred magic' can help heal the Church’s metaphysical split between good and evil. This isn’t magic as occult manipulation, but as a restoration of symbolic coherence and cosmic participation. Here’s a synthesis of their positions:
"🕯️ Re-Enchantment as Healing: Bridging the Church’s Split
"1. Sebastian Morello
- In Mysticism, Magic, and Monasteries, Morello argues that the Church has been 'possessed' by Cartesian rationalism, which severed its mystical roots and flattened its symbolic depth.
- He calls for a 'Christian re-enchantment' that reclaims the sacred mystery at the heart of reality—not to blur good and evil, but to restore the Church’s capacity to metabolize paradox and awe.
- Morello sees enchantment as a 'counter-spell' against secular nihilism, enabling the Church to reinhabit its liturgical and mystical potency."
"2. Robert Lazu Kmita
- In his essay series The Crisis of the Church and the Mystagogical Option, Kmita explores how mystical union and hermetic logic can rescue the Church from its crisis of meaning.
- He suggests that the Church’s binary moralism—its rigid split between good and evil—has led to symbolic starvation, and that mystagogy (initiation into mystery) can restore ethical depth."
"3. Jason Baxter (via Morello’s Foreword)
- Baxter frames Morello’s work as a “counter-history” of mysticism, offering tools to stay sane in a secular world that has lost its enchantment.
- He echoes C.S. Lewis’s idea of 'evil enchantment' as a modern condition, implying that sacred enchantment is the antidote."
"🧭 Healing the Split: Not Erasing Evil, But Containing It
- Magic as Containment: Rather than dissolving the moral axis, sacred magic ritualizes and contains evil—transforming it through symbolic logic.
- Mysticism as Integration: Mystical rites allow paradox to be held without collapse, offering a third space beyond binary moralism.
- Enchantment as Ethical Repair: Re-enchantment reactivates the Church’s capacity for awe, reciprocity, and symbolic discernment."
"In short, these thinkers propose that the Church’s healing lies not in rejecting magic, but in reclaiming its sacred logic—ritual, symbol, and mystery—as tools for ethical repair. Shall we map this as a containment protocol or design a rite that metabolizes enchantment into ecclesial renewal?"
Sources:
https://www.amazon.com/Mysticism-Magic-Monasteries-Recovering-Mystery/dp/1965303048
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8CT805tyDA
Body Demonia or Body Dysmorphia seems to play a huge role in Church theology. Isn't this anti-incarnational, somewhat suicidal, and at bottom a manifestation of Anti-Christ?
