Witchcraft, AR review

Home‎ > ‎About the AR-chive‎ > ‎History‎ > ‎Early Apologia Web Content‎ > ‎WN02-01‎ > ‎

Witchcraft: Exploring the World of Wicca, by Craig Hawkins (Baker Books, 1996, paperback, 227 pages. Forward by J.P. Moreland)

Our introduction described this book as "the best evangelical response on witchcraft to date." It is actually a contender for best to date with respect to the entire category of occultism in general. The outstanding reason for this is the welcome absence of sensationalism in Hawkins' work. There are too few books on occultism by evangelicals in the first place. Of those that do exist, few are free from such pandering to sensationalism.

Best of all, Hawkins does sound work. You can "take his observations to the bank." The body of the text provides a detailed understanding of this dark subject without toying with things best left alone.

Another distinctive of this book on witchcraft is how well it presents the basics necessary to learn a balanced view of occultism from an evangelical perspective. We are aware of no one else who summarizes occultism more accurately and concisely.

Similarly, Hawkins includes concise sections on key elements of the occult worldview, making the book an excellent resource on occultism in general. Hawkins offers a similarly excellent and concise presentation on reincarnation. The chapters providing a philosophical critique of witchcraft are well-written and not out of reach for the average reader. The biblical analysis in this response to the occult would be difficult to improve.

Witchcraft is well organized, and features a valuable glossary as well as indexes of persons, Scripture, and subjects. Regrettably, although the book was initially released in February of 1997, it carries a 1996 copyright.

We appreciate the faithfulness of Hawkins in presenting the chaotic complexity of occultism with compassion regarding eternal concerns. It is our joy to recommend this book in a field that has traditionally been flooded by unsound Christian responses. It is our hope that the popularity of this book grows exponentially in parallel with the occult revival that the Western world is now experiencing.

Rich Poll
Editor, Apologia Report
January 2, 1998