Encountering Witchcraft: Causality, Fear, and Violence in the Modern World is a rigorous and deeply human examination of one of the most enduring and destructive belief systems in human history. Across cultures and continents, misfortune-illness, death, poverty, and personal failure-is often attributed to hidden supernatural agents. These beliefs have led to accusation, exile, abuse, and even murder, particularly of the most vulnerable: children, widows, the elderly, and the psychologically distressed.
In this interdisciplinary work, Januarius Asongu, PhD, confronts witchcraft belief at its philosophical, psychological, and theological roots. Drawing on metaphysics, psychology, theology, anthropology, and social theory, he demonstrates that witchcraft lacks coherent causal mechanisms, empirical evidence, and theological necessity. Instead, he argues that witchcraft belief emerges from cognitive bias, fear conditioning, and the human tendency to impose intentional explanations on suffering.