David;
Not coming from a Christian tradition my knowledge of Christianity is very little so my opinion below may be erroneos.
But I always believe that Christianity is full of fantastical stories about the other world, satan , exorcism and all that. Just as much as eastern religions.
The way I see it, the westerners are now much less concerned about mysticism and alternate realities/universe , not because they profess Christianity or live in Christian culture but the opposite. They have come away from this culture and turn primarily to secularism which eschew the unproven unknowns.
I guess the western worlds in the dark ages or even in the 19th century were as much as the eastern world in their belief of the unexplained.
Would the swords of the knights of the crusaders for example were believed to be magical as the keris in Indonesia today? My guess is, many believed they were.
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