Difference between magic and religion

…for virtually any group, one’s own beliefs and practices are considered religious, and those of the Other are considered magical and illicit. “Prophecy” was thus accepted as a proper religious phenomenon, while “divination” was seen as magical.

Early ideas common in social scientific work included, in broad strokes, the notion that magic is primitive, while religion is advanced and theologically sophisticated; that magic is peripheral (that is, what outsiders do), while religion is central (what insiders do); that magic is clandestine, while religion is public; that magic is subversive, while religion is conventional; that magic is malevolent and dangerous, while religion is benevolent and safe; that magic is coercive, depending on human agency, while religion is faith-ful, depending on divine agency; that magic consists in illegitimate reaching for power or for the sacred, while religion represents legitimate, proper access...

“So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and did just what Yahweh had commanded. Aaron threw his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they too, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts” (Exod 7:10–11).11 This view, whether held by the biblical writers or by the scholars who accept the biblical perspectives as factual, typifies the rule of thumb that, for any given group, “religion is what We do; magic is what They do.”

It is still quite common in biblical scholarship (unlike in the study of other ancient Near Eastern and Greek divination) to see “prophecy” understood as a religious phenomenon, and “divination” as magic, with all of the negative connotations generally attached to the term.

Quotes from the book “Women’s Divination in the Bible” by Esther Hamori