Just Finished Reading: Paganism – A Very Short Introduction by Owen Davies

I have long thought that, if in some alternate whacky world where religion was compulsorily, I’d choose to be a Pagan. For one thing I’ve always thought that having different gods doing things and other gods trying to stop them whilst still more gods play tricks on them (and the rest of creation) made much more sense than a single God responsible for everything – which is why monotheists have such a hard time explaining the ‘apparent’ contradictory nature of the universe!

Of course pre-Christians didn’t call themselves pagans. Pagan was a word coined pretty much by Christians to describe, in derogatory terms, people who practiced the ‘old’ religions and hadn’t or wouldn’t upgrade to the new belief system. Of course as the power of Christianity grew the number of pagan adherents reduced until, it was believed, Christianity was eventually (if somewhat briefly) triumphant. First on their home turf, then in the North and finally in the far flung America’s and Far East Christianity pushed what they perceived as pagan (and hence inferior) religions to the margins and into the realm of superstition.

Things began to turn around for pagans with the Renaissance when ancient (pre-Christian and therefore by definition pagan) texts came into general circulation and intellectual stars such as Plato and Aristotle became revered throughout Europe. It wasn’t long before Enlightenment studies into the origins of all religions and early anthropological forays into so-called primitive religions in far away lands brought paganism back into the mainstream. Of course it was only a hop, skip and a jump from studying paganism to practicing it. With the general decline of religious feeling and observance in Europe after 1945 paganism in its many forms began re-emerging (or often reinventing itself) and has been growing ever since. Taking the long view – given that pagan religions existed long before the advent of Christianity – it is arguable that monotheism in general might be seen as a temporary aberration in an otherwise pagan universe.

This short volume certainly covered all the bases – briefly no doubt but there’s only so much you can say on this enormous subject in 122 pages – and would prove an invaluable resource to anyone wanting to know more about ‘old’ religions – both ancient and modern. Recommended for those who like to take the long view and to think outside the box. Oh, and no doubt some of you will be relieved that this is the last VSI book for a little while. Back to normal reading shortly!