>Unless, of course, the magical and the divine are one and the same
>thing. This suggestion represents heresy in RW christian theology
>BTW ...
It became heretical as a result of the reformation. Prior to
this, nobody would have been overly disturbed by the proposition.
Prior to this, one could protect oneself against a malign spell using Christian paraphernalia in a magical context ie crumble a communion wafer and sprinkle it around oneself. Magicians and Necromancers could even be found in some royal and papal courts.
As a result of the Reformation, the idea that supernatural acts could only take place either through the action of God or the Devil gained credence*. Therefore to perform defensive white magic became to be seen as a diabolical act. The only acceptable avenue of redress left open when someone was cursing you was to denounce them to the local authorites for witchcraft and this is one of the causes of the witchcraze.
*There were some neoplatonic objections to this notion but they never amounted to much.
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