Neo-Paganism: Is Dialogue Possible?

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This article was originally published in the Lutheran Theological Journal, 36/3, December 2002, pp. 112-125. It is posted at Apologetics Index by permission. See also: About This Article.

It is easy to parody another religion, and neopaganism is a parodist's delight. One can easily brand its ritual as primitive or just plain weird.

Yet serious apologetics requires that one exercise a hermeneutic of respect in the attempt to understand another faith.

St Paul obviously spent time with the Athenians, reading their poets and watching people at worship before daring to address them. Only in this way can Christians begin to dialogue with pagans.

We need to put aside fifteen hundred years of offhanded dismissal and listen to pagans as having something intellectually serious and spiritually viable to say. This does not mean agreeing with them but having enough respect to listen and learn.

Neo-Paganism Dialogue: What is Neo-Paganism?

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6 Responses to “Neo-Paganism: Is Dialogue Possible?”

Wandering Star Says:
August 10th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Thank you Mr. McClean for not only trying to understand us but for getting it right was well. I can not speak for all Pagans but I find my beliefs and ethics accurately reflected in your article.
Thanks!
Stuart French Says:
September 20th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
I agree. A common sayings of many pagans is "Our historical story encompasses those of the other religions, but theirs are not broad enough to encompass ours."
This is a tacit acknowledgement of absolute truth and while many fringe pagans sharing the new age category would happily pick and choose the more liberal aspects of post-moderninity, most pagans - at least the wiccans I have spent time with - consider reason and tradition quite important.
The real key here is their perception of Christians as arrogant and self-righteous considering they only have half the story. Our openess to dialogue and debate and strong focus on listening and questioning without judgement are critical, "off-handed dismissal" is a very apt description of the Church's past attitudes.
That said, there is little for the studied Christian to lose. Conversing and being challanged by pagans and their objections to the truth of Christ and His gospel will not only strengthen us in our own beliefs, but often aspects of the truth are further revealed by looking closely at a counterfeit.
The Wiccan tradition contains many common beliefs and principles to Christianity that can act as bridges to building relationship and respect. I encourage anybody with friends involved in this area take an interest and share Christ through loving action rather than bible bashing common in the past.
Ally Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 12:31 am
I completely agree. It's about time we realised that what we all believe comes from the same roots anyway - and people are people, regardless of what they believe. Both religions need to reconsider their hostility - nowadays, the chances that one faith will obliterate the other is very low, so do we really need to be so opposed to sharing and learning beliefs? The focus with religion is (or should be) on education nowadays, not power or control and I like that so much more - we should take advantage of it. Thankyou for this entry, I hope more people see the truth in it.
Christian Says:
February 24th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Wow! So much to say and so little time. I believe that all the previous respondents need to look up a term called "Law Of non- contradiction". This law of logic precludes both neo-paganism and Christianity being true. Both can be wrong but both can't be true because they have too many contradictions.
Pagan and Christian Apologetics « Tír na nOuray Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
[...] globe. This was made keenly apparent to me when I ran across this online course on titled “Neo-Paganism: Is Dialogue Possible?”, written from a Christian perspective. I highly encourage a full reading of this text, as [...]
Andrew McLean Says:
June 18th, 2011 at 3:44 am
I have only just found these comments.. As the author of this article, I am touched at the response I got here. "Christian", i'm not trying to see who is correct (which is what christianity is obsessed with), but how we can learn and journey together. We may never get to a point where we can 'worship/ritual' together, but if we can understand and honour each other - thats my point.