By Gary Topping–
Shortly before Christmas, I finished reading D. Michael Quinn’s Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Quinn, in my opinion, is the finest historian of Mormonism that that faith has produced, and his book, especially in the revised and enlarged edition which I read, is, as one reviewer put it, truly a “tour de force” of scholarship. It is a study of the myriad occult elements like seer stones, divining rods, astrological charts and many others that were prevalent in American culture in the early nineteenth century and which went into the creation of the Mormon religion. Realizing that much of that stuff was going to be unfamiliar to most of his readers and likely embarrassing to modern secular-minded Mormons, Quinn documents his findings with amazing elaborateness, with seemingly more pages of footnotes than of text. Part of his thesis is that as the nineteenth century progressed, Mormonism become more and more secular and gradually purged most of those occult elements from its practices, as did Protestantism at about the same time.
Quinn has little to say about Catholicism, other than to note that some medieval Catholics like St. Albert the Great had practiced things like astrology. But the pageantry of the Advent and Christmas seasons has gotten me thinking about the plethora of magical (folk-generated) elements that infuse Catholicism and give it so much of its beauty. Such magic, as Quinn’s reviewer further points out, “adds a little spice to religion.” You won’t find most of these elements in the Bible, in the Creed, in the rubrics of the liturgy, in canon law, or in the writings o St. Thomas Aquinas; they are just folk practices that have developed over time within the Catholic religion and account for much of the delight I find in the faith. I’m talking about things like votive candles, Advent wreaths, religious medals, holy cards, the Rosary, and statues and paintings. Other things like holy water, the sign of the cross, holy oils and sanctuary candles are indeed mandated either by the Bible or the liturgies for the Mass and various sacraments.
But just think how many Catholics find so many of those practices dispensable and yet remain serious, devoted Catholics. I know many who never do the Stations of the Cross, pray the rosary, or wear a religious medal. And yet here is where being a “cafeteria Catholic” is perfectly permissible and even encouraged, for all of us, I think, find at least some of those magical elements enriching to our faith. They “add a little spice to our religion.”
