"History as Anthropological Time-Travel: The Work of Ronald Hutton."

"Professor Ronald Hutton (Professor of History at University of Bristol, Fellow of the British Academy in Archeology and Early Modern History) is a preeminent historian of religion, magic, and witchcraft across a broad swath of time, from ancient practices through early modern demonology to contemporary instantiations. Over the course of his career, he has joined rigorous historical method and engagement with diverse disciplines, including archeology, folklore, ritual studies, and anthropology. Moreover, his interests in continuities and evolutions in religious categories, worldviews, and practices have put him in productive conversation with contemporary practitioners of new religious movements, including Paganism, Shamanism, and feminist Witchcraft. As the pieces gathered here attest, he is widely appreciated not only for his many historical contributions, but for his active generosity and openness to multiple viewpoints. <br>...Laurel Zwissler, an anthropologist and Gender Studies scholar in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Central Michigan University, writes on Hutton’s re- engagement of history with anthropology after their long estrangement and the implications for the academic study of religion."