"The neopagans of [Everard's] home milieu did not include [Nerthus] in their fairy tales of a prehistoric matriarchy when everybody was nice." (p. 565)
They do not need to. Neopagans can acknowledge that their religion has evolved like everyone else's.
Ulstrup differentiates between the "'...aboriginal chthonic pantheon...'" and the sky-gods brought by the Aryans. (p. 565) Cultural conflict is reflected in myths of a war between gods, settled by negotiations and intermarriage. We have just read Poul Anderson's imaginative reconstruction of an early stage of such a myth in Chapter II. The goddess, Nerthus, will become the god, Njord, the hero of Anderson's War Of The Gods. Yet again, we appreciate the diversity of Anderson's works.
12 comments:
There are neopagans like that -- known as "fluffy bunnies" in American pagan circles.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha! I have heard of the fluffy bunnies! REAL paganisms, as many grim examples from real history shows, were NOT gooeey gooeey nicey nice!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
No but the Old Testament contains barbaric laws. What is a REAL religion? They change like everything else.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul! And both Stirling and I have discussed this, arguing the Jews gradually moved away from those harsh laws. And I have read of how commentators found those were gentler than those of the Jews pagan neighbors. But I'm speaking from memory here. Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Likewise, Pagans can move away from barbaric practices.
And there is still the question of whether Christians should believe that God really did decree stoning and burning.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
This is a nonissue for ORTHODOX Christians. The matter of these Jewish laws was threshed out at the Apostolic Council in Acts 15, wherein it was decided non-Jewish converts did not need to be circumcised, follow the ritual purity laws, etc., after becoming Christians.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But did God really command burning and stoning?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
All of the Bible is the inspired word of God. But as for those laws from Leviticus you insist on, this is what the NEW AMERICAN BIBLE'S preface, in part, says about that book: "Generally speaking, the laws contained in this book serve to teach the Israelites that they should always keep themselves in a state of legal purity, or external sanctity, as a sign of their intimate union with the Lord. Accordingly, the central idea of Leviticus is contained in the oft repeated injunction: "You shall be holy, because I, the Lord, am holy." "
It seems odd for you to stress one or two obscure points in Leviticus, when I can think of pagan religions, past and present, which have done vastly worse things! And, by present, I mean Hinduism.* That religion, even now, still practices and enforces the barbarities and cruelties of the caste system.
Ad astra! Sean
*Neo-paganism I do not take seriously.
Sean,
Are death by burning or stoning obscure points?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes. Who advocates doing such things?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean
They are commanded in those passages of Leviticus.
Paul.
The question is whether God literally and explicitly decreed such barbaric capital punishment.
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