So….Why Witchcraft?

Posted on by glenchen

Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:15 NIV)

Back when I was working on my doctoral dissertation, I learned never to tell people what it was about. As soon as I told them I was writing about commodification of the World Wide Web, their eyes would start to glaze over and I would know that I had lost them.

The same thing often happens when I start to talk about books I am writing about, but for different reasons. When I decided that the next book in the Foundation Series (Salome’s Charger was #1) would feature the issue of modern witchcraft, I knew that some eyebrows would raise. From the Christian standpoint, witchcraft is not something we usually are comfortable talking about, along with demon possession, necromancy and the Antichrist. From the non-Christian perspective, I knew that I would get many people wondering if a Christian author could write about Wicca, the modern-day equivalent to witchcraft without falling into the stereotypes found in the Bible and in the Middle Ages.

I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge. At the same time, as someone who has been a magazine editor, I know that controversy sells. So I decided to embrace the issue. But the reality is, the book really isn’t about witchcraft. Not really.

I mentioned this in a blog quite a while ago. Zombie movies aren’t really about zombies, and vampire movies aren’t about vampires. It’s about the people and how they respond to these symbolic dangers. And so in this case, we are dealing with some symbolism. In the case of my book, The Key of Solomon, it comes down to whether magic, the supernatural, or miracles, can actually happen.

And beyond that, it’s about the power of God. All power comes from either God or from Satan. For as I hope my book makes abundantly clear, any power that a magician, or a witch has, is a counterfeit of the real power that comes from God. And it’s not coming from Him.

The Key of Solomon comes out this December. I will be sharing more about it in coming weeks.