The Trouble with "Witchcraft"

I'm currently reading Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone's Progressive Witchcraft. A quick flip through in the bookstore looked promising, although so far it's been little more than frustration.

Janet and her late husband Stewart have previously claimed that Wicca was an ancient religion. Since then Janet at least has stated otherwise (Stewart's outlook is unknown to me), and this fact is reiterated in Progressive Witchcraft. Great! The book also admits that magical workers in previous centuries would have never called themselves witches. Fantastic!

But then things start to go sideways. First, the book states that Wicca and witchcraft can be used interchangeably. OK, problematic, although such terminology issues are certainly not new nor are they exactly the biggest problem we face. The real problem comes from repeated mentions of Medieval witchcraft, how witches did things then compared to how witches do things now. There's a couple mentions of ancient witchcraft, and one completely mind blowing claim suggesting that witchcraft has always been the practice of a priesthood (i.e. all members are considered priests).

I'm fuddled not so much by any inaccuracy as by the sheer incomprehensibility of such statements. Wicca is equivalent to witchcraft and Wicca is modern, yet witchcraft is ancient? The basic illogic hurts my brain. And exactly what are we calling historical witchcraft? Continued claims of a priesthood being involved strongly suggest we're still talking about a Murrayesque secret pagan cult even thought the authors appear to be simultaneously distancing themselves from Murray. And if we're discounting Murray, and we admit that the people who were called historically called witches had nothing to do with what we're talking about, why are we continuing to call this...whatever Farrar and Bone are referring to...as witchcraft?

They also denounce the importance Wiccans have previously put on age of practice and lineage, yet they seem to be simultaneously doing literary gymnastics to continue to associate our practices with something ancient. Certainly we borrow bits and pieces from previous cultures, but what we practice is new. We can learn from the past without claiming to be emulating it or descending from it. The continued arbitrary application of the word witchcraft merely confuses readers and frequently perpetuates misinformation.