The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe Book

Probably not ballsy enough for some tastes, but overly satisfying as a whole, Flint delves into that awesome intersection of pre-Christian/Christian ideologies and looks at what the Church took from its predecessors. Yes, yes, we all have that friend who likes to remind us that Christmas was some Mithratic pagan festival and the eggs at Easter are our friendly neighborhood ovum (thanks, pesky fertility deity!), but Flint gets into the real, syncretic nitty-gritty here.
She sets out by making dense inquiries into what was and wasn't acceptable forms of magic. You might not know this, but early on, a lot of the Church's targets as far as diabolery went were a lot of its own peeps! There was a distinct border between "learned" magic and "popular superstition". It is the latter that interests Flint most and she does a great job sifting through the extant material to show how the Church gently co-opted and sometimes outright stole popular beliefs and molded them into their own. Think of how sampling often produces more outstanding musical works, e.g. "Paul's Boutique", anyone? There's focus on both practice and place and way to much to get into here, but if you want to read about how religious syncretism and assimilation actually works, you wouldn't be wrong to read this one.