A Christian Take on Contemporary Paganism

I was extremely gratified to read Paul Louis Metzger’s recent post about contemporary Paganism at Patheos, entitled “Idol Makers”.

Metzger succinctly, but accurately (in my opinion), tackles such issues as the Pagan materiality (i.e., idolatry), the spectrum of beliefs about the ontological nature of divinity, and the gendering of divinity.  Addressing himself to fellow Christians, Metzger warns against an overly simplistic understanding of contemporary Paganism.

“We Christians need to be on guard in our understanding of such movements as contemporary Paganism. We tend to lump all of modern Paganism into one general and distorted category. We often fail to account for the vast complexity within the movement and articulate Paganism accurately.”

He also suggests that Christians may be at least as prone to the charge of idolatry as Pagans: “While we Christians would not wish to divinize the creation, we should also guard against turning our own creations into idolatrous machines that wreak havoc on what God himself as made.”  Definitely go check out his post.