(i) I have read that the Olympians were sometimes called "new gods" by contrast with the Titans whom they had overthrown.
(ii) Jack Kirby created New Gods. (See image.)
(iii) Socrates was wrongly accused of introducing new gods (also here).
(iv) In Acts 17.18, someone thinks that Paul is preaching foreign gods.
(v) The First Commandment forbids "strange gods."
(vi) In South America, a new pantheon had replaced an older pantheon shortly before the Conquistadors arrived.
When believers in a particular religion hear an alternative message preached, they can often dismiss it as of no concern to them if it is simply different whereas they might by contrast feel challenged by any teaching that is closer to their existing practice because such a teaching can demand that they change their practice in some way. "You are misinterpreting these scriptures" etc. On the other hand, anything new can have mere novelty value. Check out a new practice carefully before committing to it.
Meanwhile, Odin should refer to "the new god," not to "the new gods." I think he is getting confused.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Hmmm, a new pagan pantheon was displacing an older pantheon in the lands ruled by the Inca Empire? Is that what you meant when saying a newer pantheon had replaced an older in South America shortly before the Conquistadors arrived?
Or did you mean the gross and grotesque gods of the Aztecs? But the Aztec Empire was in North, not South America.
Even today, more than 150 years after being published, the best books about the Aztecs and Incas remains William H. Prescott's HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO and HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU. I've read both of them twice.
And I did notice Odin using "new gods" instead of "new God," as would have been more accurately put.
Sean
Sean,
I read an article about one pantheon replacing another before the arrival of Europeans but now cannot find a reference to this.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Understood. I thought your comment seemed a bit odd because I don't remember Prescott discussing that.
Sean
Sean,
No. Either my source was wrong or the event was very minor. Local deities were incorporated into the imperial pantheon so maybe it was just a reference to such incorporation.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That might have been what the article talked about. Altho the Inca pantheon focused on worship of the Sun and the god-king, the Inca.
Sean
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