Croatian philosopher Tomislav Sunic views paganism not as opposition to Christianity but as the enduring cultural foundation of European civilization rooted in local folkways and traditions.
Thanks for your dive into paganism. It helps answer the important question of what paganism in the modern world entails; it's not a literal restoration, but a spiritual revival of people and place, natural hierarchy, and transcendence. And all this, of course, outside of (though not strictly opposed to) Christianity.
That being said, I challenge the view that Christianity created liberal secular individualism through religious universalism, though the connection between Christianity, Liberal Individualism, and Universalism cannot be ignored. I don't want to be long-winded, but this trajectory is, if anything, the result of reformations, revolts, and separations from the deposit of the Church.
Properly understood, the Church is universal, but not homogenizing, the same as a good empire in the secular sphere. Rather than mandating crushing conformity, the Church mandates truth at a high level, while leaving intact the particular and localized expressions of this truth. In areas of preference or unknown matters, a diversity of thought and opinion is fostered.
Properly understood, the Church does not destroy the need for intermediary community and has not taught that man has direct access to God with no need of broader society. The individualizing nature of protestant thought, where each is a master unto himself about the deposit of faith, has nothing to do with the Church. The Church requires community to function.
Properly understood, the Church has not despiritualized the world, but imbued the entirety of creation with spiritual significance. Nor has the Church neglected the material order in favor of purely spiritual or afterlife matters, but instead emphasized that grace builds upon nature, a nature that we are obligated to foster and protect, including securing the common good for peoples, building places, and observing natural cycles.
It is true enough, however, that Christianity provides an arrow to time and the possibility of salvation. No more is reality stuck in endless loops, but it now has a past, present, and future. I hope the future of Christianity takes some lessons from the past and is able to move society away from the secular liberalism that is crushing man's spirit today.
Protestantism is definitely the more guilty party in their critiques though many Catholics in the west have become 'protestantized' over the centuries. The Roman values of the Church have been lost or stripped away by the Protestant Reformation and all that subsequently followed.
I agree with all of this. and with Mr Raynor’s view that it is absent - by design - from most Protestantism. Luther, of course, was infuriated by the money raising for St. Peter’s. so things like masses for the dead were tossed out, and with it the “theology” of what happens to loved ones when they die. that severed the “connection,” i think, and the idea of obligation and duty to the past and ones people. One of the more subtle, and dangerous, sins of americanism.
What Blake discussed is present in Orthodoxy. maybe some old forms of Anglicanism? thinking of English parish churches with their monuments to local worthies. Unsure about Catholics.
excellent piece. I’m Orthodox (Russian) which tends to regard Christianity as the fulfillment of what our noble ancestors thought. That primal connection to people and place was not meant to be disregarded. another american bastardization of a bad enlightenment idea.
I find the ENR thinkers usage of the term Judeo-Christian to be interesting as well. Many of the indeed use the term. I think it is to emphasize the Protestant nature of what Christianity has become in the West. You even hear many protestants today call Catholicism a pagan religion and not real Christianity - Protestantism stripped away the pagan or Europeanized features of Catholicism in an attempt to create a Christianity that they felt was 'more true' to scripture.
Thanks for your dive into paganism. It helps answer the important question of what paganism in the modern world entails; it's not a literal restoration, but a spiritual revival of people and place, natural hierarchy, and transcendence. And all this, of course, outside of (though not strictly opposed to) Christianity.
That being said, I challenge the view that Christianity created liberal secular individualism through religious universalism, though the connection between Christianity, Liberal Individualism, and Universalism cannot be ignored. I don't want to be long-winded, but this trajectory is, if anything, the result of reformations, revolts, and separations from the deposit of the Church.
Properly understood, the Church is universal, but not homogenizing, the same as a good empire in the secular sphere. Rather than mandating crushing conformity, the Church mandates truth at a high level, while leaving intact the particular and localized expressions of this truth. In areas of preference or unknown matters, a diversity of thought and opinion is fostered.
Properly understood, the Church does not destroy the need for intermediary community and has not taught that man has direct access to God with no need of broader society. The individualizing nature of protestant thought, where each is a master unto himself about the deposit of faith, has nothing to do with the Church. The Church requires community to function.
Properly understood, the Church has not despiritualized the world, but imbued the entirety of creation with spiritual significance. Nor has the Church neglected the material order in favor of purely spiritual or afterlife matters, but instead emphasized that grace builds upon nature, a nature that we are obligated to foster and protect, including securing the common good for peoples, building places, and observing natural cycles.
It is true enough, however, that Christianity provides an arrow to time and the possibility of salvation. No more is reality stuck in endless loops, but it now has a past, present, and future. I hope the future of Christianity takes some lessons from the past and is able to move society away from the secular liberalism that is crushing man's spirit today.
Protestantism is definitely the more guilty party in their critiques though many Catholics in the west have become 'protestantized' over the centuries. The Roman values of the Church have been lost or stripped away by the Protestant Reformation and all that subsequently followed.
I agree with all of this. and with Mr Raynor’s view that it is absent - by design - from most Protestantism. Luther, of course, was infuriated by the money raising for St. Peter’s. so things like masses for the dead were tossed out, and with it the “theology” of what happens to loved ones when they die. that severed the “connection,” i think, and the idea of obligation and duty to the past and ones people. One of the more subtle, and dangerous, sins of americanism.
What Blake discussed is present in Orthodoxy. maybe some old forms of Anglicanism? thinking of English parish churches with their monuments to local worthies. Unsure about Catholics.
Excellent essay.
Thank you
excellent piece. I’m Orthodox (Russian) which tends to regard Christianity as the fulfillment of what our noble ancestors thought. That primal connection to people and place was not meant to be disregarded. another american bastardization of a bad enlightenment idea.
Other than Judeo-Christian, as there is no such thing, excellent piece.
Although I’ve never seen it used, irony is Christio-Islam actually has a theological framework in common which Judaism very much does not share.
I find the ENR thinkers usage of the term Judeo-Christian to be interesting as well. Many of the indeed use the term. I think it is to emphasize the Protestant nature of what Christianity has become in the West. You even hear many protestants today call Catholicism a pagan religion and not real Christianity - Protestantism stripped away the pagan or Europeanized features of Catholicism in an attempt to create a Christianity that they felt was 'more true' to scripture.