Editorial - Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety

Hi folks,

Back in 1965 E.R. Dodds wrote a book called “Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety”, focussing on the interplay of Christianity and Greco-Roman religion in Late Antiquity.  The title of the book, however, seems appropriate for the modern dichotomy of Pagan and Christian that is played out today with the rise of neo-Paganism, the New Age movement, and magic in a traditionally Christian country. 

But I’m getting tired of it being like that.  Yes, for neo-Pagans we do live in an “Age of Anxiety”, where the status of our spiritual/religious paths are uncertain in this country, and where the dominant religion here is one that doctrinally views other religions as misleading (at best) and evil (at worst).  As a movement neo-Paganism is still trying to define itself, forge ahead, make itself visible in society, and be heard by others.  But the biggest pitfall we face right now is choosing to define the neo-Pagan movement in response to Christianity. 

But first, here’s a brief summary of how neo-Pagans act towards, and speak of, Christianity. 

Many of us became Pagans after a bad experience with a church.  Some of us just got tired of having religion shoved down our throats.  Most Pagans talk of how they grew tired of Christianity’s ‘patriarchy’ and so came to a Goddess religion (Goddess religion?  Paganism?!!)  We often grumble about how Christians are so closed-minded and never bother to find out whether the propaganda about neo-Paganism is true.  Christians are the cause of the witch-hunts; Christians were behind the false satanic abuse cases of the 1980’s; Christians caused the vast wealth of knowledge in the ancient world to be lost; Christians oppressed women; Christians persecuted the native pagan religions of the Western world; Bad Christians, bad Christians, bad Christians…

Pagans have a thing for the so-called Gnostic gospels, Nag Hammadi texts, and the recently released “Gospel of Judas”.  When I spoke to many neo-Pagans about their interest in these texts they said they were interested because these texts showed how Christianity (big bad wolf!) is a lying, hypocritical religion… these texts apparently prove that Christianity is oppressive and wrong.  After all, if there are alternative versions of Christianity, their claim to being completely right must be, well, wrong! 

WRONG.

The Gnostic gospels and ‘alternative’ versions like the Gospel of Judas are NOT the Christianity of today.  They represent the beliefs and practices of a completely different religion from almost 2000 years ago.  Why would a member of a modern religion read a set of texts from another religion and let it have any effect or change upon their belief/practice (unless part of their religion involved syncretism/eclecticism – which Christianity does not)?  Why should modern Christians look at the Gnostic gospels and suddenly be enlightened as to just how wrong their religion has been over the last 1500 years?  Early Christianity was less a religion and more a set of different spiritual paths (sound familiar yet?) that were all racing against each other. One horse won the race in which many took part.  The others just disappeared after a while (sometimes after a few hundred years) because their membership eventually petered out.  The writings of these groups became the Gnostic gospels, Nag Hammadi texts, and the Gospel of Judas – their existence does not ‘disprove’ modern Christianity.     

So why have an orgasm over these texts, folks?  Would you read a Sufi text and accuse Islam of being oppressive, hypocritical and wrong?  Would you expect a Hellenic Pagan to read a bunch of Norse myths and suddenly realize that their religion must be wrong because there is an alternative neo-Paganism out there?  If you would then shame on you – bugger off, stop reading this, and hope to hell that you and I never bump into each other.

And as for hating Christianity because of the atrocities carried out in Jesus’ name hundreds of years ago… What the hell??!! You weren’t alive, you were not harmed, you were not the one hanged as a witch and you were not the pagan expected to convert to Christianity with your king.  Leave it alone.  The modern average-Joe-Christian in the street today is NOT the Witchfinder General or King James; believe it or not he can be your friend.  Like it or not, you probably have a lot in common with him.  (Gasp!  Shock horror!)  You may even share some similar ideas on religion and spirituality. 

What gets me the most is the neo-Pagans who carp on about how Christians never try to understand us and base all their assumptions upon propaganda…  Well for a start we’re not that easy to understand are we? We ourselves spend years trying to work out what on earth Paganism is for us so any poor Christian trying to do so is going to get put off pretty quickly.

Especially when we have a nasty habit of defining our spiritual path in response to Christianity – our religion is empowering for women, unlike the patriarchal church; Paganism worships Goddesses instead of/as well as a bearded Father God; our religion is based on joy of life not fear of hell; our Gods are not confined to a building like the Christian church but can be worshipped everywhere - nature is their church.  The language used to describe Paganism seems borrowed from Christianity, often in rejection of it…  Imagine what a Christian feels when they see such things. 

And I often think that we, as Pagans, do the very thing we accuse Christians of: misunderstanding the religion, viewing it as an opponent.  Many of us assume we know what Christianity is about, but in fact our ‘knowledge’ is based on assumptions that are false.  The Pagan reaction to evangelism is part of this – we often get annoyed/angry when a Christian tries to convert us, thinking that they see us as evil and bad and that their actions come out of their hatred for us.  This is not the case. Christian evangelism comes out of love – they do not want people to undergo what they believe will happen after death to non-Christians.  We also assume that Christianity has always been patriarchal and oppressive towards women – it hasn’t.  A simple study of early Christianity will reveal women’s active role in the early church, and their pivotal role in the spread of the religion. 

I am not Pagan because I disliked Christianity.  I do not worship my Gods in some sort of protest against patriarchy.  I do not adhere to my moral code because it is not the Ten Commandments.  I actually think Jesus was funky.  I have performed a ritual calling upon the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and Mary Magdalene.  I have used the name of YHVH in ritual.  I believe the Bible has a lot to offer anybody who reads it.  And I categorically refuse to believe that every Christian hates me and that every Christian is my enemy. 

There should be no battle here.  As Pagans we often call out for an end to the Pagan vs. Christian debate – we want Christians to stop trying to convert us, want them to see that we are not evil.  But shouldn’t we also be extending the same courtesy to them?  If we want to shake hands we must extend our hand as well, because it’s sure as hell that somebody’s gotta make that first move towards friendship. 

So, please, get over the Gnostic gospels.  They’re a bunch of cool texts from the period in which Christianity was still developing.  They don’t pose a threat to the church because they are NOT Christian texts – they do not represent the beliefs and practices of today’s Christians.  Stop viewing Christianity with contempt – people find happiness, joy, solace, and peace there, just as we have found those things with our Gods.  Let history slide – the witch hunts are over (and the extent to which they apply to the interests of modern Pagans is debatable).  Knee-jerk reactions to Christian belief are getting old, boring, and clichéd. 

In the time that “Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety” refers to, Christians and pagans had to live together in peace.  Christians went through what modern Pagans are going through today.  And the original pagans were actually utter bastards towards the growing religion of Christianity (have a read of some of the martyrologies sometime!)  But now it’s time to wash our hands clean of the bad blood that has existed between Pagan and Christian in the past few decades.

Well, rant over.  Have a good Summer folks – and if you’ve just finished exams and are about to graduate, well done you lucky bastards. 

Blessings,

Kim Huggens