While the author does have some accurate information and is presented in an acceptable form. The book's only purpose is to scare stupid christian and catholic parents. Mr. Alexander clearly had a bad experience with pagans in general and is taking out his agression in print. This book has alot of historical and factual errors in it. For example, he states that witchcraft as we know it can only be traced back to the 1950's, when in truth that is only the resurection of the old ways. And that historical paganism only dates back to the 1300's when we have knowledge of the ancient celts(druids),romans, germanic, egyptian, and hellenistic cultures dating back to before 2000 b.c. But he also downplays the theory that scatterd covens in the middle ages could have surrvived the burning times and the spanish inquisition. I will admit that we as pagans lost alot of our rituals and practices during that time.(Most of what we know comes from ancient roman text and some surviving covens) But it is sheer arogance to belive that ,just because there is no documentation, we were all exterminated. Most of the old traditions were oral passed down from generation to generation, and because of the murderous christians that surrounded them it was kept seceretive. It is not hard to belive that scatterd covens kept the old religion alive this way. And for the doubting historians out there, remember that during the roman empire the cults of isis and mithras were able to keep their ways secert, even today we do not know what their rituals entailed. So basically this book, if you are pagan it will make you mad and question modern day research abillities and for christians it will help you understand us a little better. Mr. Alexander does present our religion as it is but some of his research in our history is a little sketchy. If you do find yourself interested in this subject please check out steve wolhberg's hour of the witch or raymond buckland's complete guide to witchcraft. Or just ask a pagan were friendly just ask around.

This book is the best conservative Christian assessment of modern witchcraft on the market to date. It easily replaces, as a general assessment, Craig Hawkins's earlier book "Witchcraft - Exploring the World of Wicca" (1996) which, despite its flaws, does discuss areas not focused on by Alexander and is better than some of the newer books on the topic such as Tim Baker's shallow and unscholarly "Dewitched". Unlike Hawkins who tried to tie the biblical condemnation of "witchcraft" to all modern "witchcraft" practices today and blurred the distinction between witchcraft in general and Wicca in particular and sometimes confused them with Neo-Paganism in general, Alexander is more cautious and balanced. He shows that there are four main categories of witchcraft that must be distinguished: biblical, anthropological, historical, and modern religious.

Regarding biblical witchcraft, he admits that, in some cases, the Hebrew and Greek terms usually translated as "witch/witchcraft" and/or "sorcerer/sorcery" don't tell us what specific occult practice is identified so it is difficult to give a single, specific meaning to the term "witchcraft" as it is used in Scripture. He says there are eight references to witchcraft in the Bible, seven of which are in the Old Testament. The exact root of the Hebrew word mekashef is uncertain but is believed to come from a word meaning to cut or cut up, possibly referring to drugs or plants as sliced and shredded for a "magical brew". He notes that the "witch of Endor" (1 Samuel 28:3-19) was probably a necromancer or spirit medium, and the statement from 1 Samuel, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft" (15:23, KJV), involves the word qesem which, he says, "refers to some (unknown) form of divination." In the New Testament, the Greek word pharmakeia is translated once (in Galatians 5:20) as "witchcraft" and four times (in the Book of Revelation) as "sorcery, sorceries or sorcerers". This word is at the root of the English word "pharmacy" which, again, seems to involve drugs, potions or poisons. For Alexander, the biblical bottom line is that the references are "hard to apply with precision today because the biblical translators were naming ancient occult practices with terms taken from the theological controversies of their own day - and they weren't always consistent in the way they did it." That kind of admission from a conservative Christian who is writing about witchcraft is uncommon!

Although Alexander discusses anthropological and historical witchcraft, referring to scholars like Jeffrey Burton Russell, his focus is on the two "cultures" of modern witchcraft: traditional witchcraft as derived from Gerald Gardner's influence and authors such as Michelet, Leland, Murray, and Graves who contributed to what he calls the contra-Christian and pseudo-historic "Charter Myth" of an ancient, enduring Pagan tradition (which modern scholarship has debunked and some witches acknowledge) and the pop-culture witchcraft that came about from media influence via movies/shows such as The Craft, Practical Magic, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Charmed (for some reason, Alexander doesn't include Harry Potter as a major influence!?). Although pop-culture witchcraft is a hodge-podge of beliefs and practices, many of which are contrary to traditional witchcraft, it nonetheless motivates some people, especially youth, to seek out information and, possibly, enter into traditional witchcraft beliefs and practices. According to Alexander, these movies/shows created an explosion of cultural interest in witchcraft, and sympathy for it, that is still growing. Besides the Charter Myth, Alexander also exposes the myths that Neo-pagan witchcraft is nothing but a New Age delusion or a Satanic cult.

There's a mild sense of despair that underlies the book which is fueled by Alexander's admission that Neo-paganism, and its witchcraft, is winning the cultural competition of worldviews. He refers to James Herrick, author of "The Making of the New Spirituality: The Eclipse of the Western Religious Tradition," who says that the "New Religious Synthesis" is displacing the "Revealed Word perspective as the source of values and attitudes for our cultural elite" and, according to Alexander, this also applies to the popular level as well in the "battle of the narratives". Although for Alexander as a Christian, and for many traditional witches, there can be no mixing of Neo-paganism or witchcraft with Christianity, there are attempts being made. See, for example, the book "Christian Wicca: The Trinitarian Tradition" by Nancy Chandler Pittman. Nonetheless, Alexander does promote understanding, tolerance and dialog between Christians and Neo-pagans, as do some Neo-pagans, without denying the biases on both sides. This book is a good contribution to that dialog.