Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Syncretic Electric: Looking at Our History (Part 1)

Syncretic Electric: Looking at Our History (Part 1)

Last updated on: August 16, 2013 at 1:46 pm by Julian Betkowski

Syncretic Electric: Looking at Our History (Part 1) 2013-08-16T13:46:42+00:00 Julian Betkowski

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Diana and Her Companions, Johannes Vermeer, 1654

The Modern Pagan movement is a result of a complex series of events spread throughout the history of Western Culture. Indeed, it is difficult to pinpoint a moment when some scrap of Paganism was not, in some way present and influential. What I have an interest in is figuring out where Paganism in its modern form came from and why. For these purposes alone, it is necessary to have a proper understanding of the word Pagan and its usage. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding of the development of the movement–as well as the usage of the word Pagan–will help us grasp what constitutes Pagan understanding and Pagan worship in the modern era.

I believe that at least part of the problem is that “[a] large proportion of Pagans today are unaware of the sources of their religion and do not tend to delve particularly deeply into its origins” (Tully, 2011, p. 98). For a set of religions largely without clergy, Paganism more has essentially failed to provide its adherents with critical thinking skills, an understanding of proper research methods and data analysis, and even a basic theological education. As a result, and I believe in conjunction with the heavy reliance on personal gnosis (which John Halstead explored quite admirably), many Pagans simply do not know how to discern their own desires from the divine, the effect that their own personal histories have had on their religious development, the role that Paganism plays in the larger culture, and the theological ramifications of their practices and ideas. Paganism does not exist in a vacuum, but is and always has been effected by the larger culture. Indeed, the history of the development of modern Paganism shows just how much it has been shaped by forces around it.

Modern Paganism did not emerge ex nihilo, nor is it any accident that Pagan was the word that came to describe this religious movement. Pagan thought, in some form, has nearly always been a part of Western Culture. Even at the height of the Catholic Church’s power, Classical Antiquity provided the cornerstone of a proper education. Indeed, the Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and poets played a heavy role in the cultural development of Europe and America.

Dante’s Divine Comedy, in the high Middle Ages, enunciated in full development the attitude towards the classical pagan world which was to obtain for the next seven centuries; that it should be admired and loved, and that the triumph of Christianity had served to perfect it. (Hutton, 1999, p. 12)

While the presence of Pagan thought was heavily glossed with Christian ethics and morality, and viewed as largely incomplete until the rise of Christianity, it was revered and loved. The Italian Renaissance demonstrated over and over again the fascination that Western Culture has had with the themes and characters of Greek and Roman mythology, even while at the same time insisting on a purely Christian interpretation.

It was not until later, during a movement that many modern Pagans deride and attack, that Pagan thought began to escape from the shadow of Christianity.

…, the Enlightenment did contribute themes which would be incorporated into a genuine modern paganism. It set up an antithesis between Christianity and the other patriarchal monotheisms and the religions of nature which had preceded them, and regarded the former as a disaster. It identified alienation as the central problem facing the human self, and a return to nature as a rediscovery of true humanity. It also blamed that alienation at least partly upon authoritarian and hierarchical social structure, which denied the autonomy of the individual and self-worth. It aimed to abolish or universalize the priesthood, it recognized no scripture, and it located the source of truth in the human being. It did so, moreover, by turning to pagan Greek and Roman texts for inspiration and example. (Hutton, 1999, p. 21-22)

While the Enlightenment was generally hostile toward religion, it also cleared the ground for the development of Modern Paganism and provided some of the necessary tools. It was not until the Enlightenment that your average person would be thought of as autonomous and capable of exercising free will. The political and cultural shifts that we refer to as the Enlightenment signaled the decline of monarchies and the emergence, once more, of personal choice and political freedom. Combined with the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment marked a change in the way that Western Culture conceived of authority, both temporal and divine, and began the process of shifting authority into the private individual and out of the hands of the state and church.

Is it really necessary to go back this far in order to gain a proper understanding of Paganism? Honestly, I believe it is, if for no other reason than to demonstrate that while Modern Paganism is a very recent development, its roots stretch back far into our collective history. Greece and Rome provided the intellectual cornerstone for the development of Western culture, and we as modern Pagans must be aware that there has always been a hint of the Pagan around us. Even though it has only been recently that people have once again in large numbers turned to the Gods of the ancients and the Spirits of the land looking for religion, we have never been entirely free of their influence. Western Culture has been steeped in Classical Antiquity and so it seems as though it was only a matter of time before the allure of our ancestors became strong enough to draw us back.

Of course, this is barely scratching the surface, and there is much more work to do uncovering the history and development of the Pagan movement. However, I feel that it is important to understand that our history as Pagans is bound up in a larger history, and in fact has been made possible by other, larger movements that changed Western culture as a whole. Modern Paganism is just one of a complex variety of movements that was possible by the Enlightenment, for example, and it is necessary that we understand how we collectively arrived at a place where Paganism could once more become a viable way of experiencing the world. This post marks the first in a series exploring the larger cultural movements that both laid the groundwork for and shaped modern Paganism.

References:

Hutton, R. (1999). The triumph of the moon: A history of modern pagan witchcraft. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

Tully, C. J. (2011). Researching the past is a foreign country: Cognitive dissonance as a response by practitioner pagans to academic research on the history of pagan religions. The Pomegranate, 13(1), 98-105. doi: 10.1558/pome.v13i1.98

Syncretic Electric is published on alternate Fridays. Subscribe via RSS or e-mail!

Columns

History

Syncretic Electric

contemporary Pagan history

Previous Post

August 15, 2013

Loop of Brighid: Invocation of the Graces – A Brigidine Sacred Text, Part 5

Next Post

August 19, 2013 Seekers and Guides: The Hero’s Journey (Part 3)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Lakeside Hearth Adventures in Wortcunning Alone In Her Presence Arts, Crafts & Cooking Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft Book of Blackbirds Book Reviews Born-Again Witch Cauldron, Sword, Spear, & Stone Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Dear Jasmine Druid Thoughts Editor's Picks Everyday Pagan Family & Household Practice Family Traditions Full Frontal Magic Gateway Goddess Guest Articles Happily Heathen Health and Wellness Hearth of Hellenism Heathen Woman Hills of the Horizon History Holidays Horse Goddesses Interfaith Interviews Irish-American Witchcraft Jewish Witch Lamp & Labyrinth Letters from Midgard Literature, Media, Film, Music Loop of Brighid Love, Sex & Relationships Magic or Magick Making Light Naturalistic Traditions Nature News Outside The Circle Pantheisticon Politics Prayers, Poems, Blessings & Stories Queer Femme Mystic Queer of Swords Recipes Ritual and Practice Science and Research Seekers and Guides Seeking the Grail Socially Responsible Magic Spear of Athena Star Made Witch Syncretic Electric Technology The Blooming Staff The Busy Witch The Cartomancer The Crow's Nest The Dance of Pagan Recovery The Hearth of Hellenism The Lady's Quill The Other Side of the Hedge The Path of She The Rantin' Raven The Witches Next Door The Zen Pagan Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Tree City Witch Urban Earthwitch Wayfaring Woman Witch on Fire Wyrd Words

Select a Month January 2026 March 2025 December 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian group worships mainly on Saturday, not Sunday?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Catholic Seventh-day Adventist Methodist Orthodox