The Witches of Cambridge, another book glorifying the use of witchcraft and magic by Alice Hoffman, author of the Practical Magic series, has become an instant best-seller on the New York Times Bestseller List. But is this book appropriate for Catholics?For those who have never heard of it, The Witches of Cambridge, published by Simon & Schuster, revolves around two young women living at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the 1950s.
Ava Abbott is shy and studious and is a descendant of Rose Bridewell, the “First Witch of Cambridge” and founder of the Lilith Society, a fictional secret society of witches at the college whose origin extends back to colonial Massachusetts. Ava inherited her family’s magical abilities from an early age but her adopted parents are extremely strict and believe these powers are evil. They do everything they can to suppress these abilities from burning her books to tying her down when she attempts to levitate.
Lauren Bell is openly descended from a wealthy magical family known as the Bell family of Cambridge whose members are described as being born with magic abilities. Lauren arrives at the school already knowing about witchcraft and fully expects to be invited into the Lilith Society. Unlike Ava who believes she can use her magic powers for good, Lauren is deliberately attracted to the darker side of magic.
The book follows these two women as they are recruited by the Lilith Society and move into Lilith House where they become immersed in their magical heritage and develop their powers. The women form friendships, fall in love, and deal with relationships.
What’s significant about this book is how it normalizes witchcraft and presents it as an everyday choice rather than portraying it in the form of sensational events. Reviewer Kristen McDermott calls it “the 'practical' folk magic practiced by the sorority."
Hoffman presents occult practices as an ordinary part of what is presented as a relatable life, weaving it into the daily lives of these students, in their studying, forming relationships, falling in love, planning their future, muck like Christians incorporate prayer to God into the rhythm of their daily lives. Only these characters are incorporating witchcraft.
Even the title of the Society is named after a demonic being named Lilith in early Jewish traditions who is associated with the night.
The name is also associated with a medieval myth that Lilith was Adam’s first wife. In this story, Lilith was created from the earth like Adam but refused to submit to him and leaves Eden to become associated with demons and the harming of infants.
The novel also makes the usual uninformed claim that magic can be used for either good or evil. Ava claims to use it only for good while Lauren openly uses it for evil.
As the Catechism teaches, all magic is evil. "All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others—even if this were for the sake of restoring their health—are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion." (CCC No. 2117)
None of this is surprising for an author who has a long-standing interest in witchcraft and magic, particularly as it is portrayed in literature. Although there is no evidence that Alice Hoffman has personally practiced witchcraft or identified as a witch, she has researched the subject for decades and deliberately presents the witch as a positive symbol of power, resistance to conformity, and female solidarity.
She claims her interest began while growing up and listening to stories from her Russian-Jewish grandmother, and reading fairy tales, myths and legends.
She openly admits to having no religious faith. In fact, she attended Harvard Divinity School and earned a Master of Religion and Public Life in 2024 and claims the only reason she did so was because she wanted a deeper understanding of religion and its role in literature.
In a remarkable first-person essay published by Ploughshares in March 2026, Hoffman wrote: “I went to the Divinity School because I have no faith. I didn’t lose it. I never had it. I don’t believe in politics or in religion, in God or angels. I don’t believe in families or in friendship. I don’t believe in unconditional love. I don’t believe in love at all. That is, as a person. As a writer, however, I believe in everything.”
In the same interview, she refers to herself as a “divided person” and goes on to say that the trance-like experience she has while writing fiction is similar to that of St. Teresa of Avila’s ecstasies!
Understanding the spiritual worldview – or lack of it – of the author, goes a long way in describing why this book is problematic for the faithful. It takes genuinely good things, such as female friendship, courage, independence, healing, resistant to injustice, and repeatedly packages it with practices and concepts that Christianity regards as occult.
The Church has no objection to powerful women, just to the use of divination and other attempts to harness occult powers in order to achieve that power.
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