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
9 of Beagles: A Pagan in A Christian Seminary?

9 of Beagles: A Pagan in A Christian Seminary?

Last updated on: June 27, 2019 at 10:29 pm by Conor Warren

9 of Beagles: A Pagan in A Christian Seminary? 2019-06-27T22:29:56+00:00 Conor Warren

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.

Many of my professors, my friends, and my coworkers have asked me that same question, why are you, a Pagan, going to a Christian seminary? Some are genuinely curious, some are baffled, and some are just trying to figure out if they are going to offend me by swearing, drinking, or basically doing anything fun (I wish I was joking). As I write more, I’m sure the question will come up more than once. Here it is, for future reference, an abridged version of why I chose to attend and continue to attend a Christian seminary.

Why are you, a Pagan, going to a Christian seminary? Photo by Quidec Pacheco via Pixabay.

Professional Considerations

I’ve wanted to be a chaplain for years. A professional, board-certified, paid chaplain. There are routes towards this goal that don’t require going to seminary, but they are complicated and don’t promise success. Could I have attended a seminary not accredited by the ATS? Yes, but when it comes to board certification through the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) I’d have to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops in order to have that education recognized. And if the non-accredited school wasn’t highly cognizant of APC requirements and equivalencies or whoever is on the review panel is particularly grumpy it could mean that I’m shut out unless I pursue more education in contexts acceptable to the APC (there is not an appeals process). Just from the viewpoint of what will make this route less rocky as a Pagan, going to an accredited seminary was just far less risky albeit much more expensive. I’m not the most pragmatic person in the world, but this did play some part in my decision.

Care Considerations

This is perhaps the biggest consideration for me. I don’t want to be a Pagan chaplain, I want to be a chaplain who is Pagan. Many of the current chaplains who are Pagan perform their duties on a volunteer basis for hospitals, prisons, or military bases specifically for the benefit of Pagan individuals. Now, I think that is really awesome and something that our community needs a whole lot more of, especially prison chaplaincy (but that’s a post for another time). But it isn’t what I’m called to do. I’m called to minister, listen, and hold space for whoever needs me to do that for them. Considering that a huge bulk of our population is either Christian identified or adheres to some egonovist spirituality that is heavily influenced by our Christian culture, I figured that it is essential I know how to speak their language. If I cannot understand how to offer patients alternatives and ways of meaning making that are decipherable in their theological language I’m not going to be as effective of a chaplain as I could be. If I cannot understand what angle they might be coming at this from, how am I going to empathize and engage in ways that prove meaningful to the patient? Care needed to be placed first, so I resolved to go somewhere I could learn this language, this toolkit.

I needed a toolkit to learn the language. Photo by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay.

Knowledge

Perhaps the biggest reason I chose to and continue to attend Iliff is the variety of classes and knowledge that I’m able to soak up. Going in I researched some of the professors and found myself excited by and intimidated by them and the instinct that I was making the right choice has so far proved correct. While the content is often contextualized within Protestant Christian (and sometimes Buddhist!) settings it takes no struggles of thought to think about what the information means in a Pagan context. One of the classes in my first quarter looked at worship services in digital settings and a couple of the other students (who are also Pagan!) immediately brought up examples from Second Life and IRC chats! Which of course sends you into wondering what makes an offering an offering and. . .you get the point. I am continually challenged to think, and grow, and reconsider, simplify some thoughts and make others more nuanced and complex. I’ve had the pleasure of taking classes on diverse topics such as Judaism and gender, how our social location affects our ministry, and on mysticism and activism. Next quarter I’m getting to dive into a class on Afro-diasporic religions! Even the classes on the Bible are fascinating and really just drill down into historical and cultural contexts the texts developed in. It was fascinating in my Hebrew Bible class to track the change in the text from a polytheistic setting where YHVH is the “strongest” deity to one where he is the only deity. I’m incredibly grateful for all the opportunities to learn and grow. Even now, I’m planning an independent study with a wonderful professor and some help from Dr. Christine Hoff Kraemer. I can’t say enough about how excited I am for those opportunities.

As I come to understand new things my thoughts change. Image by Sarah Richter via Pixabay.

It Has Made Me a Better Pagan

Seminary has made me a better Pagan. I’m not saying that going to seminary is going to make everyone a better Pagan or anything like that, but I am saying it has made me a better Pagan. Before starting seminary I just had so many questions, concerns, distresses, that no one could provide any sort of satisfactory answer for. They found satisfying answers, but they were unsatisfying to me. Or worse. Sometimes they were outright destructive to my being able to find any solace in this community. I walked away for a bit. I spent about a year trying out whatever I wanted, going to Episcopal churches, Reform temples, spirituality meetups, whatever struck my fancy. Nothing really worked or helped for more than a couple of months and my understanding of divinity never shifted away from a polytheistic one; I just tried to make space for myself as a polytheist in these settings (spoiler alert: bad idea). So, I resigned myself to being stuck in-between with no satisfactory answers, fluctuating between thinking “this really might work!” and “there is nothing here but sadness”, and a deep feeling that I’m missing something vital.

Then I started seminary to pursue my call and found myself being equipped with the tools to actually grapple with these questions and feel confident in coming to my own conclusions. I don’t need someone to tell me whether the gods are benevolent or not, I can reflect on that using my own experiences and reasoning and come to my own conclusions. No longer am I beholden to relying on what NN person argued or what YY culture believed about the deities; I can reflect, incorporate, and come to my own conclusions and trust those conclusions. And I can revise them if I need to! The gods are the gods and as I come to understand new things my thoughts change, and that’s okay! Getting to that point was hard for me, but getting to it was liberating and I could not be more grateful.

Those are my reasons for attending and continuing to attend seminary. I’m sure things will change over time but if you want more info or opinions, meet me at a bar and buy me a drink. I always love a nice chat.

Theology, Ethics, Philosophy

About Conor Warren

Conor Warren is a member of Ár nDraíocht Féin and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Iliff School of Theology. He lives in Oregon with his partner and their dog. When he isn’t writing, studying, or working he is playing boardgames, videogames, or pulling shenanigans. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

June 23, 2019

Phoenix Rising: The Guard at the Gate

Next Post

June 27, 2019 3 Pagans & A Cat: To Walk a Labyrinth

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

A woman who had suffered bleeding for twelve years was healed by touching Jesus' what?

Select your answer to see how you score.

His hand The hairs of his head His cloak His feet