13AR18-39

Apologia Report 18:39 (1,175)

October 30, 2013

NEOPAGANISM - gaining its voice in the UK

WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - a great gulf in American opinion

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NEOPAGANISM

Over the past several months, The Guardian newspaper (UK) ran a multi-part series on modern paganism for the general public written by Liz Williams <www.ow.ly/qkJqi>, "author of 15 SF/Fantasy novels. She has a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science from Cambridge, and runs a witchcraft shop in Glastonbury." The opening paragraph notes that "the Association of Catholic Priests <www.ow.ly/qkJFI> is bemoaning the apparent fact that Ireland is now a 'pagan' country."

Williams provides nonspecialists with a rare, wide-ranging introduction to the movement in plain language. "I need to emphasise straight away that modern paganism - at least in the UK - has no direct links with whatever it was that ancient pagans, whoever they were, believed in. The term comes from the late Latin 'paganus', which simply means 'country dweller' or, less flatteringly to the modern mind, 'peasant'. ...

"Modern paganism's roots are in part embedded in the late 19th century, with the rise of organisations such as the Golden Dawn - a society which involved a set of highly theatrical, and more than somewhat turgid, magical practices.... Its more sensational proponents were people like McGregor Mathers, who fancied himself as a Scottish count, and a young Alistair Crowley. Predictably, the Order disagreed with Crowley and, no doubt fanning itself furiously, booted him out, whereupon he set up his own society, now known as the Ordo Templi Orientis. ...

"Whatever flavour of practice you care to name, however - wicca, druidry, heathenism, or ceremonial magic - there are some common themes: romanticism, classicism, a harkening to the historical and mythical past, and a focus on the natural world and the passage of the year. ...

"Having been metaphorically beaten over the head by academic historians such as Ronald Hutton and Owen Davies, British pagans are now prone to taking a more measured look at the actual past, as opposed to the mythological one. It is generally accepted that 5 million witches were not burned at the stake (certainly not in the UK, where hanging was more popular), and that wiccan lineages go back to the 1950s, not hundreds of years to where bands of goddess-worshipping priestesses were ousted by evil Christians. ...

"We are not a text-based religion, and arguably not a theism or set of theisms per se; modern paganism is diverse, fluid, and individualistic. ...

"GK Chesterton's famous quote is frequently invoked: 'When a man stops believing in God, he doesn't then believe in nothing - he believes anything.' Unfortunately for easy analysis, the issue with pagans is more that they believe in lots of anythings, but what those anythings consist of is open to substantial debate."

Williams goes on to explain that "both wicca and, to a lesser extent, modern druidry, were set up in part as a reaction to prevailing Christianity and culture, and thus you have alliances that are somewhat artificial: more of a question of defining something by what it is not, rather than what it is. The demographic is changing these days, but a number of pagans came out of repressive Christian upbringings and fled as far as they could towards one of the principal opposites available to them.

"Many pagans do believe in deities, or figures from mythology that are now treated as deities with little or no theological justification." Williams then describes celtic paganism in detail.

"[I]t isn't necessary to worship any deity in order to be a pagan. It isn't really a set of theisms per se; rather, a way of interacting with the cosmos via a varied set of practices: following the ritual year, for example. We do count agnostics and atheists among our number, and there are a lot of people who regard deities as Jungian archetypes - facets of an entirely human psychology - rather than as anything real and 'out there'. ...

"Principal disagreements tend either to be much more petty (the precise timing of so-and-so's wiccan initiatory lineage, for instance); broadly political (no nice pagan likes a Nazi, and there are a handful of Aryan nation types in some traditions); or deriving from the assumption made by pretty much every practitioner of ceremonial magic that no one amongst one's peers knows what the hell they're talking about. And since pagan clergy tend to be self-appointed, or sanctioned through a usually short initiatory line, there's a dearth of authority to which appeal can be made."

The third installment of the series has a focus on pagan ritual, but leaves out controversial detail such as that related to sexual magic. Williams writes to quell such concerns. For example: "what you will be most unlikely to see are: sacrificed virgins/small children; blood; nudity (depending on the group and where they are working, but it's not common and I will add that, in this country's climate, I'm not prepared to risk pneumonia for my beliefs, quite frankly); an orgy; or the manifestation of Satan. In most medieval texts, such as the Grimoire Verum, demons generally require the sacrifice of a small piece of toast rather than blood: very dull of them.

"[The] Romantic aspect of paganism emerges as strongly from literary and poetic antecedents as it does from any theological origin." Williams begins with mid-to-late 19th century occultism and continues: "On top of this long strand of occult writing we have the Gothic narrative itself, and the plethora of fantasy which has been informing the western imagination ever since the turn of the last century. Authors as diverse as Rudyard Kipling, E Nesbit, and JRR Tolkien have shaped modern paganism as greatly as any theological underpinnings. ...

"To that extent, contemporary paganism might be described as a literary and artistic movement as much as a religious one. ...

"A number of pagans are rightwing (ranging from Telegraph-reading, pro-foxhunting country types to a thankfully small handful in the English Defence League) - but a greater number are liberal or left, and many are self-proclaimed anarchists. In many respects, paganism is intrinsically anarchic, at least in the UK. It resists formal structures and organisation: anyone who has ever tried to organise a pagan event will testify to this. It also resists a formalisation of the very loose theological principles and beliefs gathered beneath its conceptual umbrella.

"The situation in the US is somewhat different, as registered religious organisations can get tax breaks, so structures tend to be more formalised. There's also a tendency for American Wiccans to become more hung up on initiatory lineages, and to be more dogmatic about a spiritual path that doesn't actually have any dogma. ...

"Because contemporary paganism is essentially so new, its underlying ethical structure is not particularly sophisticated. One exception might be heathenism....

"Otherwise, pagan ethical principles tend to be somewhat rudimentary: the oft-repeated 'An [as long as] Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will' derives from St Augustine (Dilige, et quod vis fac) via Rabelais and thence Crowley, and is obviously open to a wide variety of philosophical interpretations. ...

"Although in the early days of Wicca it was known as the 'witch cult', there's little that's cult-like about pagan practice. It's too diverse, and lacks central figureheads. ...

"The usual criticism, that paganism constitutes some form of

lunatic escapist fringe, is an increasingly old-fashioned view: pagans are found in every area of life....

"Ronald Hutton describes Wicca, in particular, as the only religion which Britain has given the world, and in many respects contemporary paganism is peculiarly British. ...

"There is an increasing awareness that paganism does have something to say, and that it plays a role in the gradual interconnectedness of spiritualities within the UK." <www.ow.ly/qdRZv>

For the pop version of this theme - in print, on the big screen, and on television - see "Spellbound: Why witchcraft is enchanting a new generation of teenage girls" by Sarah Hughes in The Guardian, 26 Oct '13, n.p. <www.ow.ly/qkKCG>

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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT

Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler [1] -- "Amid the strife of the Culture Wars and the heated partisan divides between Red and Blue states, one thing seems to bring together a great many Americans across both sides of the nation's secular/sacred divide: a deep, abiding sense of amusement and incredulityif not outright contemptfor purveyors and supporters of the so-called 'Prosperity Gospel.'"

Despite this opening statement, Larry Eskridge (associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College) notes: "Citing studies, Bowler shows that 17 percent of all American Christians openly identify with the movement; that every Sunday, over a million people attend Prosperity-oriented megachurches - 43 percent of which boast multiethnic or multicultural congregations; and that two-thirds of all Christian believers are convinced that God, ultimately, wants them to prosper. In effect, she argues that if a substantial number of people identify with the Prosperity Gospel and accept its common teachings, then it must be closer to the mainstream than one might imagine."

Bowler "questions its inclination to lean toward short-term answers to economic problems while ignoring systemic solutions. Additionally, she is troubled by the movement's penchant for end-times speculation and near-unquestioning support for a Zionist vision of Israel. Throughout her book there are anecdotes and examples of biblical interpretation that will no doubt leave those outside the Prosperity movement shaking their heads." Christianity Today, Aug 22 '13,<www.ow.ly/qdWbk>

For a recent theological critique of the movement, see Health, Wealth & Happiness, by David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge [2].

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler (Oxford Univ Prs, 2013, hardcover, 352 pages) <www.ow.ly/loyDt>

2 - Health, Wealth & Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ? by David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge (Kregel, 2010, paperback, 208 pages) <www.ow.ly/qkLY6>

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