The Pagan City

This is a response to “Vacationing with the Pagans” by Eric Miller in the September 2009 edition of Christianity Today.

Mr. Miller begins his article by describing a family outing to Virginia Beach to see a tribute band performing two hours of song by the Beatles. Bemused by the metamorphosis of the faux Fab Four from their early rock and roll beginnings to their all-out pyschedelia of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band he expresses shock at the reactions of the audience (especially his son) and concludes that:

All kinds of names have been given to this transformation. But this concert leaves me thinking one thought: We’re on vacation with the new pagans. They’re everywhere.

Everywhere? Oh, dear.

While I’m not going to discuss the point to Mr. Miller’s article, if there is one. I do take exception to his repeated misuse of the words pagan and paganism. He makes some pretty astounding generalizations which make me question: if he is on vacation, is he a tourist in his own land?

Apparently so.

Paganism: an old word with enduring resonance, and for good reason. Think of it as the state of heart and mind that has emerged as the reality of Law has come, over the past century, to seem less and less real—a long historical process that reached a kind of climax in the ’60s, when to “question authority” meant, among other things, to question the very existence of authority.

I would like to infer that Mr. Miller is referring to the decline in people deferring to a spiritual authority and not all authority in general. I am sure there are people who self-identify as Pagans who are also anarchists; I am equally sure such folk are in the minority.

Also, what is the “Law” of which Mr. Miller writes? History overflows with the conflicts of Catholics and Protestants bloodily arguing over what Christian law is/was/will be. I find it hard to believe that the readers of Christianity Today could even agree on a definition of “Law.” Mr. Miller never explains his own usage.

But the canard that non-Christians, i.e. pagans or Pagans, are somehow with authority — spiritual or otherwise — is a canard that dates back to Theodosius, if not earlier. True, Mr. Miller is writing for a Christian audience, but for contemporary Christians to have any sort of understanding of what modern Paganism is, we need something of substance.

Ready for more?

A recognizably Christian culture has given way to a new paganism. What is this?

It is the embrace of nature without Nature. It is the reverence of bios, physical life, in tandem with a dimming awareness of zoe, spiritual life. It is, in fact, the mistaking of physical life for spiritual life, with all the historically ingrained religious sensibilities rushing toward bios with a very familiar zeal.

A very familiar zeal, indeed. Where have I read about this before?

So, these “new pagans,” go to cover band concerts, recognize no authority, and have given up the spirit entirely for the flesh. It sounds more like a description of those tedious atheists who run around proselytizing naturalism.

Again, Mr. Miller is unclear. My knowledge of ancient and medieval Greek is almost non-existent. Sure, βίος can be translated as “life.” But zoe? Does he mean ζωή or zoë which also means “life?”

It gets better:

So now, for us twenty-first century pagans, being 25 is all—the most alive we’ll ever be. Men and women on both sides of that envied age try with holy fervency to attain it, whatever the cost in dollars or dignity. The hair must be cut just so (and then cut again and again—just so). The body must be kept trim, ever prepared for a 25-year-old’s feats. Old age never looked so bad. What red-blooded American male today would ever want to wake up and find himself married to a grandmother? What American woman wants to look like one?

So the “new pagans” are also youth-obsessed and vain? Hold on a minute. Isn’t it human nature to retain, if not youth, at least youthfulness? What about Pat Robertson’s deal with GNC (General Nutrition Center) for diet shakes?

He goes on:

Our too-spiritual spirituality ended up leaving us, as Christians but also as a wider populace, in considerable confusion about all things material, whether bathing suits or beer or bombs. And our disregard of the physical was bound to invite a walloping counter-embrace of it. By the 1960s, paganism was, once more, unshackled. Our creaturely identity, in all its post-Edenic glory and corruption, became impossible to box in. The body was back.

I’m sure a lot of active Pagans would be surprised to find out that their various paths were unfettered during that decade. It was a surprise to me. And, as with so many other Christian articles, the answer to every problem is “worship.”

This all strikes me as disingenuous. The brief bio (“life!”) of Mr. Miller describes him as an associate professor of history at Geneva College. One would hope that a faculty chair at a liberal arts college in Beaver Falls, PA would have a better grasp on the history of the emergence of Christianity from Classical religions, and also be aware of the contemporary usage of pagan and paganism to know that these words are loaded with different meanings than the ones assigned to them in this rambling article. “New pagans” sounds a lot like the phrase “Neo-Pagan” that has been in use since the 19th century.

One would also hope that Mr. Miller represents ancient and modern people who follow non-Abrahamic faiths as something other than authority-forsaking, body-obsessed teenyboppers at a concert that was a reenactment of history rather than an actual part of history.

I have some pagan friends who recently attended a U2 concert. Although not a Christian band, its members have often expressed a deep influence and appreciation for their Christian upbringing and its ethos.

Did they feel like tourists? No. They had fun.