Pagan Religion Research Articles

The End of Sacrifice: Religious Transformations in Late Antiquity. By Guy G. Stroumsa

trans. By Emanuel, Susan . Pp. xviii, 136 , Chicago/London , The University of Chicago Press , 2009 , £22.50/$32.00. This book consists of expanded versions of four lectures given at the Collège de France in 2004 together with a paper on the transformation of the self in Late Antiquity. Strousma subscribes to a variant of Gilbert Murray and E. R. Dodds' thesis of a ‘failure of nerve’ based on increasing insecurity as ethnic and cultural identities collapsed as Hellenistic society moved into the Empire, and people looked to religion, redefined from a sacrificial quid pro quo reinforcing the civic collectivity to the search for a personal ‘salvation’ understood as union with the ‘One’, to take its place and fill the vacuum. In general, it was a step down, not a step up, but the fall of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE is an under-appreciated catalyst that made Rabbinic Judaism the laboratory for this revolutionary transformation in society as a whole. The Jews were forced to give up sacrifices and to reconfigure their religion, based now on study, prayer, fasting and charity; they functioned as forerunner and precedent for the change that Christianity would bring about when it became the official religion of the Empire, and animal sacrifices were interdicted to all religions in the late fourth century. Strouma dismisses René Girard's thesis of the ‘triangle of desire’, but the data he presents reinforces a view of Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity as mirror images of one another, both persecuted minorities, both subscribing to ‘bloodless sacrifices’, and rivals disputing the correct interpretation of the Jewish scriptures, with the ‘prize’ consisting in seizing the title of ‘true Israel’. Strousma underplays the extent (which Yuval among others has demonstrated) to which early Rabbinic Judaism, and the Mishnah in particular, developed not autonomously but with an eye constantly on developments in Christian theology and practice. The larger thesis, almost unspoken, is that Jewish exclusivism and monotheism prompted a love/hate reaction by Hellenistic society. Their exclusivism together with their rebelliousness made them unacceptable to the civic religion of the Romans; but then Hellenistic Jews themselves were exasperated and embarrassed by these traits, evidenced by the appearance of Greek first names, the occasional apostasy, and the planting of Hellenistic ‘diaspora’ synagogues even within Palestine before the fall of the Temple. Strousma acknowledges that pagan religion and Stoic-Platonic philosophy were functioning with an implicit monotheism that showed an openness and appreciation for this feature. All of society was pushing in this direction. In fact, one could claim that, after having ‘lost’ the war of independence in 70 CE, Judaism ‘conquered’ the Roman Empire ‘without firing a shot’ through the acceptance of its non-exclusive, non-legalistic offspring and variant, Christianity. This is a more adequate account for this transformation than a ‘failure of nerve’; this way, each side got what it wanted. Strousma fails to express exactly what constituted the difference of Christianity (and to a lesser extent, Judaism) from pagan religion. He speaks of ‘truth’ (in contrast to ‘myth’), but it is more precisely its insistence on historical-theological truth (as opposed to ‘philosophical’ truth) in claims about its founder that distinguished Christianity from the ‘myths’ of the pagan religions. Indeed, it was this disturbing insistence on the penetration of the divine into the physico-historical world in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus that for the first time made society conscious by contrast of its ‘myths’as myths, with connotations of anthropomorphism and poetic fancy that punctured their serene security with suggestions of inferiority and inadequacy. The first natural response was outrage. Christian witness through martyrdom (or ascesis in monasticism) was a not inappropriate response to this claim from the human side. Strousma frustrates the reader by doing less than full justice to data he himself presents.

Expanding Religious Studies: The Obsolences of the Sacred/Secular Framework for Pagan, Earthen, and Indigenous Religion. Part 2: Rethinking the Concept of ‘Religion’ and ‘Maturi’ as a New Scheme

The present article discusses indigenous views concerning religion as part of a contemporary trend that wishes to expand understanding of religious phenomena and be more inclusive of nature worship and Pagan orientations that are otherwise excluded when the sacred is strictly dichotomized from the secular, the profane or the ordinary. Although there are phenomena that are classified academically as ‘religion’, our initial question asks whether an appropriate framework is actually established by the concept. This question is vitally pertinent for the study of nature worship and contemporary Western forms of Paganism as bona fide religious expressions. On the legal front alone, new religious movements often face huge hurdles when it comes to gaining recognition, legitimacy, and their benefits. The academic study of spiritual orientations that counter the already established world religions is part of this expanding arena of potential debate and innovation. In the preceding paper (Part 1) we suggested a new schema of i (yi) and ke (ké) in mutual conversion as a substitution for the ‘sacred secular’ polarity that many authors regard as fundamental to the very concept of religion. In Part 1, however, we assumed the concept of religion as a known premise. The present paper represents an attempt to reconsider the concept and its application range through situations in which the word ‘religion’ is actually used—hopefully to develop a more flexible usage that is more inclusive of traditional, vernacular, and emerging religio-spiritual practices. 
 
 The i-ke principle previously presented was not proposed as a framework for these phenomena but simply to show the methodological inadequacy involved with any a priori assumption concerning universal concepts. Inevitably, humanity’s cultural limitations and divisions make any refined and intelligent concept partial and prejudiced. Ethnocentrism can result when efforts to be objective and universal employ limited notions. Despite the irony involved, a better method might be located through the reverse exploitation: applying indigenous concepts that are already themselves understood as partial and prejudiced to wider areas and diverse traditions while remaining aware of their limitations and unfairness.
 
 Cultural bias does not necessarily or inevitably indicate inadequate public and academic considerations. Indeed, researchers might profitably recognize a dependence upon their own traditions as long as they do not insist upon the superiority and universality of their culture. The application of indigenous concepts need not be restricted to their host cultural regions. For example, interpreting ‘religious’ events in India with European cultural concepts, or those of Japan with African ones, are to be encouraged if exclusiveness or dogmatism are avoided and restricting conditions of indigenous nature are not forgotten. Such a methodology affords the possibility of effectively comparing multiple types of culture. When researchers survey the world from their own cultural perspectives while permitting and encouraging others operating in different traditions to do the same, plural interpretations and explanations of the same phenomenon are likely to emerge. Along with Paul Feyerabend there is no reason to grant unique authority to any inviolate presiding criteria.1 Encompassing a range of different theoretical positions for purposes of comparison is the foundation for a true respect of the diversity of cultural traditions. The proposal of the ‘i-ke mutuality’ is intended to provide an example of indigenous and pluralistic methodology. In the present paper, we attempt a similar analysis concerning the usage of religion as a word or concept.

Literatury stowiańskie po roku 1989. Nowe zjawiska, tendencje, perspektywy. Vol. 1: Transformacja, and: Vol. 2: Feminizm, and: Vol. 3: Podmiotowość, and: Vol. 4: Mniejszości (review)

530 seer, 86, 3, july 2008 the importance Ivanov attached to cult as the basis of all culture and his specificvision ofGreek pagan religion as a kind ofOld Testament toChristian Revelation. Bowra, though not averse to mysticism and acutely aware of the importance of the 'inner life', fought shy of dogma and revealed religion and did not want to take on board the fundamental ontologism of the Russian poet's understanding both of the symbolism inwhich the two felt so at home and of the ancient world both loved. However, as Davidson points out, the important thing was that they liked one another. We are allowed to observe Ivanov's 'consummate skill at building elegant bridges between himself and others' (p. 50) and Bowra's pragmatic energy which did somuch to promote thework of an almost forgotten, dying poet in the criticalmiddle years of the twentieth century. It is an added bonus that we are shown not only what Oxford did for Ivanov but also what Russia did for a very young Bowra on the eve of the 1917 revolution ? and how eagerly his scholarship and humanity is still appreciated inRussia today. This littlebook is a model essay in comparative literature. Department of Russian Avril Pyman School of Modern Languages and Cultures Universityof Durham Literaturyslowianskie po rokuig8g.Nowe zjawiska, tendencje, perspektywy. Vol. i: Janaszek-Ivanickova, Halina (ed.). Transformacja. Elipsa, Warsaw, 2005. 303 pp. Summaries inEnglish. Biographical notes. Bibliographies. Index. zl 32.00 (paperback). Vol. 2: Kraskowska, Ewa (ed.). Feminizm. Elipsa, Warsaw, 2006. Summaries in English. 303 pp. Biographical notes. Bibliographies. Index, zl 28.00 (paperback). Vol. 3: Czapik-Lityriska, Barbara (ed.). Podmiotowosc. Elipsa, Warsaw, 2005. 284 pp. Summaries inEnglish. Biographical notes. Bibliographies. Index. zl 32.00 (paperback). Vol. 4: Dabrowski, Mieczyslaw (ed.). Mniejszosci. Elipsa, Warsaw, 2006. 274 pp. Notes. Summaries inEnglish. Biographical notes. Bibliographies. Index. zl 29.00 (paperback). The present work is an ambitious four-volume series devoted to various aspects of literature in post-transformational Slavonic countries. Each volume ? Transformacja (Transformation), Feminizm (Feminism), Podmiotowosc (Subjec tivity),and Mniejszosci (Minorities) ? has been edited by renowned schol ars from some of the most prominent departments of literature at various Polish universities. The series is also the result of intense collective research efforts carried out by the International Science Network (Miedzynarodowa Siec Naukowa) between 2003 and 2005, formed by academics from all the Slavonic countries. Each volume consists of an average of twenty essays that differwidely in their literarymaterial, methodology and perspective. The sample of texts analysed in the collection attempts to cover thewhole reviews 531 spectrum of Slavonic literature since 1989. Of itself,this constitutes an ambi tious contribution to the development of a new perspective on the regions, comparatively emphasizing many relevant political, economic and cultural differences, and laying out the tensions between the harmonizing tendencies of globalization, and the unique and rare filterof each national character. This systematization presents the series' main goal, namely, to establish a network of interconnected literary traditions (fromproduction, creation and reception, to content, etc.) which interact with broader processes and conditions out side the texts in Central and Eastern Europe. This interweaving of literary studies with the outer-textual context expands the subject of the series, making it of interest to students not only of literature, but also sociology, politics or anthropology. The year 1989 is taken conventionally as a caesura that divides Commu nism and post-Communism. Halina Janaszek-Ivanickova, editor of the first volume and originator of the series, is aware of this, but emphasizes the process of change ? 'generally speaking, the avalanche rolling in 1989-1991 wiped out Communism, to a greater or lesser extent, from all Slavonic countries' (p. 10). This 'wiping out' of 'real socialism' provides the central focus of the first volume. Transformacja constitutes an introduction to the whole series, explor ing the diversity of understandings contained in the term itself,as well as the main literary tendencies that went step by step with the process of transforma tion from ? as Janaszek-Ivanickova puts it ? 'Communist autarchy' (p. 7). The purpose of these four volumes is to '[achieve] a consensus' (p. 7) on the experience of the velvet revolutions by showing diverse attitudes towards and judgements on...

What I Learned about Christianity from the Druids

The phenomenal growth rate of Pagan religions has attracted little attention from missiologists, not to mention the Christian community in general. Only recently has the academy recognized its growing interest among scholars, and some publishers are dedicating volumes, if not series, to Pagan Studies. The religious milieu of contemporary Western society provides an environment of pluralism, leading to the legitimization of religious others. This religious free-market has precipitated transfers of religious loyalty. As such, Christianity should be open to the criticism that it receives from outsiders, as well as former insiders, in order to hear and learn from their perceptions. As Western Christianity is increasingly considered inadequate in answering the questions of post-Christian Western culture, Paganism is positioned as a new religious movement that addresses spirituality in a manner that meets the desires of the contemporary West. Western Christianity needs to consider how it is viewed by Christian and religious others in order to address the spiritual needs of the post-Christian West. The purpose of this article is to present current research on one Pagan religion's perception of Christianity. While the perception exists that the dominant position of Christianity has placed it above the criticism of religious others, it is important for Christianity to humble itself and listen to others express their concerns and frustrations. The article begins with a definition of contemporary Druidry. Then, utilizing ethnographic data, the article presents some contemporary practitioners' views of Christianity. Finally, the article outlines three lessons about Christianity that can be drawn from the Druids.

Becoming a Woman Through Wicca: Witches and Wiccans in Contemporary Teen Fiction

The article examines Cate Tiernan’s ‘Wicca’ series. This series and the ‘Circle of Three’ books by Isobel Bird explore the experiences of teenage girls who embrace the pagan religion, Wicca. The texts reflect the growing interest in spirituality expressed by many young people and extend the literary representation of witchcraft. Tiernan produces stories of spiritual growth entwined with fantasy and romance. The series operates within a moral and religious framework that allows girls to feel positive about their bodies and their sexuality and acknowledges the complex moral decisions many young people face.

Le palimpseste hagiographique de la Pologne du haut Moyen Âge : l'espace et le temps du culte de saint Stanislas de Szczepanowo.

The Hagiographical Palimpsest of Early Medieval Poland: Spatial and Temporal Points of Reference in the Worship of Saint Stanislas of Szczepanowo From the example of the Medieval worship of Saint Stanislas of Szczepanowo, an eleventh-century martyr, the article aims to evoke the symbolic value of time and space in the advent of the first local hagiographical cults in Poland before the end of the 13th century. Referring to the hagiographical file about that bishop of Cracow, the approach consists in relating the evolution of his worship, the official one and the popular one, so as to emphasize the spatial and temporal points of reference allowing to prove the continuation of the ancient autochthonous myths under Christian veneer. Considering the symbolic dimension of two liturgical commemoration dates dedicated to Saint Stanislas of Szczepanowo may lead to a few significant mythological dues. Such examples show some ways taken by Christian acculturation on the ground occupied by former Indo-European pagan religion.

Traces of Power: Recent Books on Women in Antiquity

Traces of Power:Recent Books on Women in Antiquity Laura McClure (bio) Philippe Borgeaud . Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary. Trans. Lysa Hochroth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. xix + 186 pp. ISBN 0-8018-7985-X (cl). Susan Guettel Cole . Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. xiv + 292 pp.; maps. ISBN 0-520-23544-4 (cl). Barbara Goff . Citizen Bacchae: Women's Ritual Practice in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. xiii + 400 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-520-23998-9 (cl). Diane Kleiner . Cleopatra and Rome. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. 340 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-674-01905-9 (cl). These four ambitious books provide welcome new perspectives on the lives of ancient women, the spaces they inhabited, and the ways in which they influenced their societies. Although long a commonplace of classical scholarship that religion provided the primary access to power for ancient women, scant attention has been paid to the subject. All of these books address some aspect of gender and religion, from the ritual activities of women in ancient Greece, to the evolution of a maternal divinity in pagan religions and her translation to Christianity, and to the profound impact of a deified Egyptian queen on Roman culture. In Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space, Susan Guettel Cole explores the intersection of gender and ritual practice in ancient Greece, with close attention to the epigraphical evidence. Meticulously researched, the book weaves together a broad range of evidence, from inscriptions, literary and medical texts, to archaeological remains. What emerges is a complex picture of the organization of ritual space in ancient Greece and the ways it structured political communities. Cole begins by exploring three related and coextensive landscapes: the natural, the human, and the imagined. In Greece, the division of space always had political implications, and stories about the organization of space and the natural landscape were often "infused with gender." Early Greek epics, such as Hesiod's Theogony and the Catalogue of Women, contain [End Page 184] numerous geographical narratives that "locate the individual community in its landscape and connect it to mythic representations of the larger universe" (21). Such narratives also reflected human categories and social hierarchies: for instance, fixed locations, like the hearth, were associated in the Greek imagination with the female. Chapter 2 examines the ways in which the ancient Greeks delimited the human from the divine. Injunctions against washing in a woman's bathwater, setting a boy on a grave, or eating from an unconsecrated pot, illustrate the profound need to separate human physical processes from the divine. Directed to an exclusively male audience, they also show the importance of delineating male from female. The inability to maintain these boundaries could infect the entire political community with pollution, thus requiring constant maintenance through the symbolic marking of perimeters and the repetition of ritual. In chapter 3, Cole considers the form and function of regional sanctuaries. These helped to merge autonomous cities—separated by geography and fiercely independent political structures—into a unified culture of shared traditions. The gods worshipped at these sites—Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi—promoted the universal recognition of divine laws. Apollo in particular was invested with a judicial authority that transcended political and territorial boundaries, supporting the "process by which cities made decisions and protected citizens from capricious leaders" (73). The fact that his sanctuary at Delphi marked the imaginary center of the world attests to the god's universality. Just as Delphi provided a sacred center that unified separate city-states into a culture of shared traditions and common laws, so, too, each city-state itself was organized around the prytaneion, "a space . . . both sacred and political" (80) that enclosed its common hearth and sacred fire and forged male solidarity and community. Chapter 4 elucidates the gender asymmetries entailed in ritual practice. Because the ancient Greeks worshipped in groups, gender often came into play in ritual contexts. Although it was less common for men and women to participate in shared rituals, there was no single formula for determining ritual constituency. Rituals connected with the body, especially...

Michael F. Strmiska, ed., Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005, 382 pp., ISBN: 1851096086, hb

The essays that make up this edited volume provide a welcome addition to previous surveys of paganism and neopaganism [by Graham Harvey (2000), Joanne Pearson (2002), Shelley Rabinovitch and James Lewis (2002), and Sarah Pike (2004)] that focus mainly on the USA and the British Isles and on Wicca and its variants. Editor Michael Strmiska broadens this focus by including essays on modern pagan movements in Lithuania and Ukraine, Italian-American Stregheria, Asatru in Iceland and America, Heathenry in Great Britain, Druidry in Ireland, and pagans in the US military. This expanded focus remains organized around a European–American axis, allowing for intriguing discussions of parallels and contrasts between the various groups covered, without becoming a superficial “global encyclopedia.” The essays on eastern Europe highlight the “tenacious preservation” of folklore and customs in these more ethnically homogeneous former Soviet states and the ways these deep streams of cultural memory are reemerging in vibrant pagan movements. Strmiska’s opening essay makes several interesting points about the terms “pagan” and “neopagan.” First, Strmiska traces the development of “pagan” as a pejorative term for pre-Christian polytheisms that threatened Christian dominance throughout northern and central Europe. He points out that modern pagans embrace the term precisely because it marks their break from conventional Christian belief and practice. They also are influenced, he maintains, by positive nineteenth-century anthropological, folkloric, and Romantic portrayals of European pagan religion. These portrayals cast pagan religion in a mysterious and alluring light and also showed how these traditions could be used to stimulate national pride and a respect for cultural patrimony among ethnic subcultures. Finally, contemporary pagans hope that by wearing the label proudly they can honor their pagan ancestors who fought to maintain their spiritual practices in the face of hostility and persecution. Strmiska discusses the disagreements within the pagan community over the use of the term “neopagan,” noting that, for many contemporary pagans, the term is Sophia (2007) 46:105–106 DOI 10.1007/s11841-007-0012-9

A Process Epistemology of Wiccan Occult Knowledge

One characteristic, among others, of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca is its affirmation of occult knowledge. Some Wiccan traditions hold this knowledge to be secret; others, in particular Feminist Wicca, have a more open attitude. Despite these diverse approaches to the accessibility of occult knowledge, all Wiccans link it to embodiment. Many Wiccans associate it specifically with female embodiment through the concept of Women’s Mysteries. However, the broader definitive qualities of Wiccan occult knowledge are non-gender specific, namely that it is creative, non-rational, subliminal, and contextual. The twentieth-century philosophical system of process thought understands knowledge to have three levels: the deep, non-rational level of causal efficacy that affords one a grasp of the relationality at the base of all reality; the sensory level of presentational immediacy; and the humans-only abstract level of symbolic reference. The first of these, causal efficacy, can be associated with the qualities listed above for Wiccan occult knowledge. Wiccans access this level of knowledge through ritual, which takes them across the veil of rationality and abstraction into a brief and faint awareness of deep interconnections among all things. Some Wiccan ritual practices, in particular those of Feminist Wicca, then cycle back from this deep non-rational level to a more cognitive appropriation of the knowledge gained there. The process concept of causal efficacy offers philosophical insights into Wiccan occult knowledge and metaphysically grounds the Wiccan claim that at a deep level all reality is interconnected in a Web of Being.

The Theological Interpretation of Myth

This article seeks in the Platonic philosophers of late antiquity insights applicable to a new discipline, the philosophy of Pagan religion. An important element of any such discipline would be a method of mythological hermeneutics that could be applied cross-culturally. The article draws particular elements of this method from Sallust and Olympiodorus. Sallust’s five modes of the interpretation of myth (theological, physical, psychical, material and mixed) are discussed, with one of them, the theological, singled out for its applicability to all myths and because it interprets myth in reference exclusively to the nature of the Gods and their relationship to a model of the cosmos in its totality. The other modes of interpretation, while useful in particular contexts, are not uniformly applicable to all myths, interpret the myths as concerning things other than the Gods themselves, and interpret the myths with reference to particular sectors of the cosmos. Accordingly, it is from Sallust’s theological mode of interpretation that the new method draws its inspiration. From Olympiodorus the method derives strategies for interpreting basic narrative attributes that myths share with all stories. Thus temporal sequence is interpreted as an ascent, from our perspective, from less perfect to more perfect manifestations of the powers of the Gods. Passivity, conflict, and transitive relations in general between the Gods are interpreted as expressing attributes of the cosmos to the constitution of which the Gods dedicate their energies, rather than as placing constraint upon the Gods themselves. The article concludes with a series of broad principles meant to guide the new method.

Her hidden children: the rise of Wicca and paganism in America

Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 How the Ravens Came to the Lake: Wicca's Birth and Atlantic Passage Chapter 4 Calling It 'Nature Religion' Chapter 5 The Rhetoric of Wicca Chapter 6 The Playboy and the Witch: Wicca and Popular Culture Chapter 7 West Coast Wicca, Self-Invention, and the Gardnerian Magnet Chapter 8 A Search for Paradise: Other New Pagan Religions Chapter 9 Final Thoughts

New Religions and the Nazis (review)

Reviewed by: New Religions and the Nazis Paul Jackson New Religions and the Nazis Karla Poewe New York: Routledge, 2005. 218 pp., ISBN 0415290252, $26.95. New Religions and the Nazis is an attempt by a leading anthropologist to analyze the construction of the sacred within Nazi ideology. Poewe was inspired to inquire into the relationship between politically religious aspects of Nazi ideology and Germanic religions after analyzing the interwar archives of the Berlin Mission Society. Central to her analysis is the story of the founder of the German Faith Movement, Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, a narrative that draws in discussions of those associated with his activities, debates over ideas with key figures of similar movements, such the Gotterkenntnis movement of Mathilde and Erich Ludendorff, the resonance of these ideas within the Nazi hierarchy, and the impact of Hauer and others on postwar fascism. By analyzing the influence of this movement on Nazi Germany and beyond, Poewe's aim is to dispel the myth that "German pagan faiths, expressed in countless new religions, by diverse leaders and adherents both inside and outside of the official church, were too small in number to make an impact on National Socialism" (1). According to Poewe, these movements sought as their goal the creation of "genuinely German (Nordic) faith-based political community, a community of one Volk that would privilege . . . the almost lost Germanic and Nordic culture and ancestry" (2). Poewe's narrative begins by identifying how Hauer, alongside many others, developed nationalized pagan religions, largely as a response to the profound impact of the First World War and the repeated crises of the Weimar era. Within such a milieu, it was not only prominent Nazi figures that emphasized the positive qualities of kampf (struggle) as a force to be embraced in order to cope with a profound sense of national anomie. Rather, a widespread "cultic culture" developed that provided a fecund mood for establishing new realms of faith that sought to solve the national crisis. For Hauer, and many like him, a swathe of intellectual resources—from German idealism conceived of as a religion to Indian philosophy, especially the Bhagavad Gita—were used during the 1920s to construct an anti-Semitic worldview founded on a Manichean kampf between what was seen as a virile and healthy Indo-Germanic Volk and a decadent Jewish-Christian civilization. Despite revealing to private acquaintances his deep-rooted Nazi sympathies, Hauer mostly hid his religious philosophy of Nazi approval during the 1920s and presented his thinking publicly in terms of a metapolitical discourse on organic nationalism. Primarily, this was [End Page 133] in order to retain intellectual credibility with, among others, the Zionist philosopher Martin Buber. However, after the Nazis came to power, Hauer engaged with the policy of Gleischaltung by bringing together a variety of Germanic and Nordic religions under the umbrella organization ADGB, or German Faith Movement. Essentially, this was an attempt to create a new national religion that chimed with point twenty-four of the National Socialist program, which allowed religious freedom as long as these did not threaten the existence or "offend the moral feelings of the German race." However, ultimately Nazis failed to develop an alternate church to those of either the Protestant or Catholic denominations. After the movement became increasingly radicalized under the indirect influence of Reinhard Heydrich, Hauer resigned as its head in 1936 and returned to more esoteric concerns of appealing to radical right intellectuals rather than to Nazi street fighters. Overall, Poewe's analysis is of a very high standard. She offers clear exegeses of the positions of key ideologues and demonstrates the impact of the German Faith Movement on the wider regime well. Especially interesting are her claims that among members of Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel (SS), an estimated 86 percent of the officers of the Death's Head Unit, 78.9 percent of the Armed SS Units, and 66 percent of the General SS Units subscribed to the belief systems of the Germanic religions (119). Nevertheless, she does not overstate the case of the importance of the movement and does acknowledge its weaknesses in penetrating German society. Overall, we are left...

Lexical Reflections Inspired by Slavonic *Bogŭ: Some Thoughts on the Slavonic Pantheon

This paper examines the pagan Slavonic gods and the way in which their functions might mirror the tripartite division of pagan society into juridical/magic, military, and economic functions. Toporov, for instance, sees the main Russian gods as Stribog, Perun, Volos, paralleling the Roman Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus and Germanic Odin, Thor, Freyr. Particular attention is paid to the origin and meaning of Common Slavonic *bogŭ vis-à-vis *divŭ and to the one pagan god probably common to Slavs and Balts, Perun/Perkūnas. The study is presented under the following headings: The chief Indo-European deity; Traces of the chief Indo-European deity in Slavonic; The form *bogŭ The religious dualism divŭ vs. bogŭ The Elbe/Baltic Slavs' chief deity; The pagan Slavs worshipped a chief deity; Another aspect of the chief deity; The pagan Slavs' chief deity; The fertility-protecting function; The position of Veles/Volos; Conclusion. Though it would be possible to force Slavonic pagan religion into the framework of an Indo-European/Indo-Iranian triadic structure of the pantheon, reflected in a similar view of society, it is concluded that the limited amount of firm evidence requires that one should proceed circumspectly in any attempt to project hypotheses onto an entire linguistic group.

Idolatry In The New Testament

The New Testament inherits its attitude toward idolatry from the Old Testament and early Judaism. In all three, idolatry is the primal sin and is connected with sexual immorality and avarice. Both Jesus, in his response to the question about tribute, and Paul,* in his treatment of food sacrificed to idols, reflect the conflict between revulsion against idolatry and the need to survive in an idolatrous world. Moreover, Paul and the Johannine literature respond to the Jewish charge that Christianity itself is idolatrous. Appropriation of New Testament attitudes toward idolatry for our own pluralistic society is complicated by their variety and their apparent caricature of pagan religion.

The Music of the Past in Modern Baltic Paganism

Modern Baltic Paganism grew out of nineteenth- and twentieth-century folklore research into the folk music, folklore and traditional ethnic cultures of Latvia and Lithuania. Research into native Latvian daina and Lithuanian daino folk songs with their rustic beauty, symbolic richness, and intriguing linkages to ancient Indo-European cultures and religions generated a new sense of pride and ethnic identity among Latvians and Lithuanians. Spiritually inclined folklorists developed religious movements that recreated rituals and beliefs linked to the dainas and dainos. Repressed during Soviet times, these movements have reemerged and flourished in the post-Soviet period. There can be no doubt that music, which over the centuries has played such a crucial role in the transmission of Latvian and Lithuanian folk traditions including native Pagan religions, will remain front and center in the continuing evolution of modern Baltic Pagan religions in Latvia and Lithuania and beyond.

Forest Myths: A Brief Overview of Ideologies Before St. Stefan

The article discusses forest and solar myths in Komi mythology in the era prior to Christening in the 14th century. After adopting Christianity the forest became to be regarded as the abode of heathens and dark devilish forces. In the medieval Komi calendar, the year was divided into two major periods – the elk season and the bear season, and into nine months, according to the season of hunting, and, the pagan religion. In the 19th century the Orthodox calendar had already been adapted to the hunting activities, and the agricultural activities had assumed the principal position in the southern areas of the Komi settlement. Folklore and archaeological materials provide evidence of the existence of at least two basic mythological systems in the prehistoric mythology of the Komi, one of which is connected with a calendar legend about the hunt on a Sun elk, and the other with a cosmogonic myth about a water bird extracting the earth from the bottom of the primordial ocean. The bronze pendants and metal clasps from Perm reflected the structure of the Universe, expressed in animal symbols. Particular groups of zoomorphic images in turn symbolized the structure of a ethno-social group, or the shaman’s journey across the heaven to two heavenly keepers of the world. The article examines the widespread motives about Chudes, goddess with three faces and four breasts, Sun elk, Mother Earth, etc.

The Pagan revival and its prospects

In this article, the author surveys the history of Neo-Paganism from the Romantic movement to the 20th-century revival of Witchcraft, Druidism, Asatru and other forms of Pagan religion. He then discusses the future prospects of Paganism, examining various social and cultural factors that work in its favour and others that work against it. He concludes that Paganism will be one of the religions of the future, although probably not the dominant one.

The future of liberal Islam

In this article, the author surveys the history of Neo-Paganism from the Romantic move- ment to the 20th-century revival of Witchcraft, Druidism, Asatru and other forms of Pagan religion. He then discusses the future prospects of Paganism, examining various social and cultural factors that work in its favour and others that work against it. He concludes that Paganism will be one of the religions of the future, although probably not the dominant one. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The Pagan writer Frederic Lamond, a long-standing member of the Neo-Witchcraft movement or Wicca, is fond of recounting the following story. Back in the 1037 Symposium / Futures 36 (2004) 1025–1048 0016-3287/$ see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2004.02.002

CHRISTIANOS AD LEONEM. ΟΙ ΔΙΩΓΜΟΙ ΤΩΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΕΠΙΛΟΓΕΣ ΤΟΥΣ. Η ΠΕΡΙΠΤΩΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΕΡΠΕΤΟΥΑΣ

<p>Despina Iosif, «Christianos ad Leonem». The Case of Perpetua</p> <p>Two Greek editions of the diary of Perpetua have recently appeared, one by Polymnia Athanassiadi and the other by Thanassis Georgiadis, both bound to attract attention. Perpetua lived at Thuburbo Minus, west of Carthage in North Africa. She was an upper class, well-educated Roman citizen, twenty-two years of age, newly married and mother of a baby boy, who converted to Christianity and chose martyrdom instead of sacrificing to the traditional gods of the Roman Empire. Her decision was interpreted as an insult to the gods and the emperors, and a direct challenge to the established order and resulted in her being sentenced to death to the beasts of the arena in Carthage in 203 CE. It was a well-established Roman belief that the traditional gods offered military victories, stability, prosperity and grandeur to the Roman people. In return and to secure the continuation of this benevolence, the Roman people carried certain strictly defined rites in honour of their gods. Pagan religion was less a matter of personal devotion than of national significance. The Christians despised the traditional gods, declaring that they did not exist or that they were malevolent demons and neglected or obstructed the traditional religious rites. This conduct disrupted the agreement the Romans had made with their gods and made the empire vulnerable. From the second century on, natural disasters were being attributed to the wrath of gods as a result of the Christian atheism and the hatred Christians allegedly had for the world. It is extremely fortunate that Perpetua's diary, which she kept while in prison awaiting her death, has survived. It is a bold, vivid and honest account of her prison life, her dreams and the hopeless efforts of her father to persuade her to conform and sacrifice. The fact that the text praised prophesy and placed martyrs above the established church hierarchy led scholars to believe that is was a Montanist product. Fourth and fifth century bishops felt uncomfortable with Perpetua's diary and surrounded it with homiletic commentaries. Instead of letting the text speak directly to the community of the faithful, they guided the understanding of words, subtly changing its messages, and controlled its dissemination. They made Perpetua less appealing as a role model and less threatening to the social order. The impression and fascination her diary exerted, however, remain unchanged.</p>

Roads to Midgard - Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives

Old Norse religion is usually regarded as one of the best known pre-Christian religions in Europe, due to the rich Icelandic literature from the 13th century. In combination with place-names, references in Latin and Arabic sources and later folklore, the Icelandic literature has been used to reconstruct a distinct pagan religion for Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia and Iceland. Modern scholarship on Old Norse religion started in the first half of the 19th century, and