Religions > Atheism > Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism?
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Apollonius" |
| Date: |
01 Aug 2003 04:32:57 PM |
| Object: |
Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
Arguably the greatest phenomenon of the new millennium so far is a
nerdish schoolboy named Harry Potter. This pre-adolescent orphan has
taken the literary world by storm in what Time Magazine calls 'one of
the most bizarre and surreal' success stories in the annals of
publishing.
Adult best-seller lists have become dominated by four titles authored
(for children!) by the previously unknown single-mother, J. K. Rowling,
catapulting her name among such popular giants as Stephen King, Tom
Clancy and John Grisham.
On a recent visit to New Zealand, my wife and I encountered bookstores
throwing Harry Potter parties ('bring your own broom') throughout the
country. The release of the fourth HP title triggered a price war that
waged in the headlines for days.
Back in the Netherlands, we witnessed the same mania with bookstores -
and even the historic church in Amsterdam where Rembrandt is buried,
the Westerkerk - jammed with children dressed as witches, spellbound by
Harry Potter readings at the midnight hour.
The commercial success has been such that a new proverb could be added
to the English language: 'A Rowling tome gathers no loss.' And that
would be true for other tongues too. Harry's adventures are being
translated into many languages, major and minor, including Icelandic,
Basque, Korean, Chinese and Serbo-Croatian!
American humorist, Dave Barry, protested in a recent tongue-in-cheek
column that he was "not jealous of the woman who writes the Harry
Potter books. It does not bother me that her most recent book, Harry
Potter and the Enormous Royalty Check, has already become the best-
selling book in world history, beating out her previous book, Harry
Potter Purchases Microsoft."
Perfectly innocent
Before I had ever read a Harry Potter book, some of my Christian
friends had told me how witty, richly imaginative and full of suspense
and emotional realism the books were.
However, a rather bizarre and surreal experience I had had myself not
so long ago, with a woman who herself could have stepped straight out
of the pages of a Harry Potter novel, had aroused in me a shrewd
suspicion that this phenomenon could be a significant indicator of the
future of our western culture.
But firstly, just in case you've been on a desert island for the past
year, let me explain some salient biographical facts about our hero.
The fictional Harry Potter is orphaned as an infant when his wizard
parents are murdered by an evil lord. He is left on a doorstep to be
raised by his aunt and uncle in the world of 'Muggles' or non-magical
folk, who hold a 'repressive, medieval attitude' toward magic. Yet it
has been predicted that there "will be books written about Harry -
every child in our (magical) world will know his name" (a prediction
moving uncanningly towards fulfilment in the 'Muggles' world too!)
Harry's break comes when he later attends the Howarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry, preparing him to enter into his true spiritual
identity and destiny. On his eleventh birthday, Harry is transported to
a parallel magic world, much more exciting and captivating than
Muggle 'Flatland'. And so our Harry - and each of his young readers -
is initiated into an intriguing world of transfiguration, divination,
broomstick flying, dungeons, poltergeists and headless ghosts.
Spells are also part of the fascination Harry Potter's magic world
holds for his young fans. Browsing through a booklet entitled, Why kids
like Harry Potter , I read of a young girl who said she too would love
to be able to cast spells on all the bullies at school, and that her
favourite character was the the poltergeist.
So, is this just perfectly innocent childhood imagination? After all,
Christian fantasy writers like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien drew on
themes of magic, witches and wizards. Well-known evangelical writer and
speaker, Chuck Colson, told his radio audience that 'the magic in these
books is purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic. That is, Harry and
his friends cast spells, read crystal balls, and turn themselves into
animals - but they don't make contact with a supernatural world.'
A Christianity Today editorial (Jan 10, 2000) declared that Harry was
definitely on the side of light fighting the 'dark powers', and
eulogised the series as a 'Book of Virtues'.
But these comments from usually reliable evangelical sources seem to me
to underestimate the significant shift in the 'plausibility
structures' - what people consider to be plausible or believable - that
has coincided with the millennium turnover.
When Tolkien and Lewis used supernatural themes last century, few
believed literally in the reality of witches and wizards. They wrote in
an 'age of innocence' (or of unbelief) about such things. Readers
understood the tales to be allegories of spiritual truths.
But through the cheerful normalcy with which Harry experiences the
magical realm, is not Rowling communicating to her global audience of
young readers something much more? Namely, that witchcraft, magic and
wizardry are normal and good. Anyone who does not accept this obviously
is still captive in the dysfunctional world of 'Muggles'.
Today's readers are much more likely to accept the literal reality of
the spiritual realities behind crystal balls and spells. Perhaps they
don't believe in demons or spirits, but in some kind of spiritual
energy or force at work.
As for changing into animals, is this not making contact with the
supernatural? I happened to catch a tv film recently in England about a
girl who believed she changed into a wolf sometimes at night and
attacked people. Afraid of the harm she might do in wolf form, she
eventually found a believer in her story, who helped her get
permanently released as a wolf on a secret reservation in Scotland.
This new expression of an ancient shamanistic phenomenon certainly
stretched my 'plausibility structure', but obviously had an audience
sufficient to warrant it being broadcast on British television.
While using techniques of magic and mythical creatures, Christian
fantasy writers like Lewis and Tolkien develop their imaginary worlds
within their own personal commitment to orthodox Christian belief in a
sovereign God. Rowling does not share that commitment. Although she
denies any personal belief in the magic her books portray, she still
tells her readers, "It's important to remember that we all have magic
inside of us."
Unlike these Christian fantasies, Harry Potter is a post-Christian
creation set within an occult cosmology. And his phenomenal popularity
among young and old signals where our western culture seems to be
headed.
Which brings us to my own personal encounter, on a trip to Bosnia, with
a woman named Danica. Frankly, Danica rattled my cage. She shook my
presuppositions. She challenged some of my comfortable beliefs about
God. She forced me to do some hard thinking about the spiritual realm.
And she awakened me to a likely and unsettling scenario for the future
of the west.
Danica and I were the only English-speakers among half-a-dozen
passengers stranded at the airport in Budapest, after missing our
connection to Sarajevo. The next available flight would not be for two
days! So we were bundled off in a minivan to a hotel. En route we
inquired of each other's business in Bosnia. I was to teach in our YWAM
DTS in the war-torn city. Danica explained that she conducted therapy
groups for Bosnian women who had been raped or lost their menfolk
during the recent war. I was intrigued by this very practical hands-on
reconciliation work, so we agreed to talk more over a meal in the hotel
dining room.
As the conversation unfolded, Danica explained that she was into the
pre-Christian beliefs of Old Europe. She handed me her card. On the
reverse side was listed a number of tours she conducted to ancient
sites including Malta, the labyrinth of Knossus in Crete, or to Celtic
sites in Ireland with the Sisters of Wisdom, staying at places with
intriguing names like the Inn of the Witch.
She then described herself as a pagan, Jungian (disciple of Carl
Jung), feminist, archetypal psychotherapist!
Suddenly I felt I was getting out of my depth! I began to doubt the
wisdom of pursuing this conversation much further. But Danica was
getting into her element.
"Old Europe enjoyed a golden age of peace as a matriarchal society,"
she explained enthusiastically, "worshipping the Mother Goddess." But
the advent of the bronze-age sky gods, including the Biblical Yahweh,
had ended this harmonious age and the patriarchal age of violence and
gender-suppression began.
Old European societies, she continued, had deep insights into spiritual
realities which had been smothered by later patriarchal eras. They had
even known the exact locations of sacred centres, dimensional
thresholds or gateways into the other-worlds or parallel universes...
Despite a degree in history, I had apparently missed this part of my
education. Growing up in New Zealand, the classical period had not
appealed to me as being particularly relevant to modern life and times.
I tried to assess this woman sitting opposite me. She was urbane,
articulate, self-assured, well-read, very contemporary - and yet was
deadly serious about everything she was telling me. She was the first
devout pagan, packaged as a civilised, sophisticated westerner, I had
had a conversation with. She was a real believer in the deities of
polytheism!? What sort of weird, esoteric, fringe person was she? I
wondered.
And what was I doing listening to her gobbledegook?
"Danica, who do you think Jesus of Nazareth was?" I asked, trying to
steer the conversation towards my world.
"There you go with your patriarchal 'either-or' thinking!" she smiled
indulgently.
I was encountering a disdain shared by mystics towards the possibility
of historical persons and events revealing eternal truths.
As I retired to my hotel room, my head was buzzing with questions. What
was this all about? Was this a diabolical trap? Or could it be a divine
encounter? Was there any truth in Danica's analysis of Europe's past?
As I lay on my bed, I traced a mental map of our conversation covering
subjects we ranged over and questions raised - a map I would later
reproduce on paper in Sarajevo.
We were poles apart in worldviews. Yet something about Danica's
perspective rang true. What was it? Unlike so many Europeans, Danica
strongly affirmed the spiritual realm, and was not impressed with the
pursuit of the western materialistic dream. That in itself was
refreshing. We shared a common understanding of the reality of the
spiritual - if not a common understanding of the truth about that
realm.
She was concerned about the environment, about realising one's full
potential, about peace and justice, about the balance between being and
doing, about gender issues - questions that ought to concern biblical
Christians.
Yet her vision for a New Europe would be that of a revived Old Europe.
Old, animistic, pagan Europe - in a new sophisticated form!
Vaguely I began to recall something Leslie Newbigin had predicted about
Europe. Newbigin, a former missionary bishop in India, challenged
western church leaders to recognise where European society was
heading. "What made Europe 'Europe'?" he would often ask. The ethnic,
religious and linguistic roots of the Europeans were all eastern. Yet
somehow Europe had developed an identity distinct from Asia. It had
became known as The Continent - when it was the one 'continent' that
was not a true continent! It was simply the western peninsula of the
Eurasian landmass.
So what then had made Europe 'Europe'? The simple answer, Newbigin
said, was that about 2000 years ago, messengers came to Europe with a
Book that told a Story that brought Hope - and transformed European
society.
But, he warned, if Europeans rejected the Book, forgot the Story and
lost the Hope, Europe simply would merge back into its eastern roots.
Europe would become re-Oriented!
Was this then what this encounter was all about?! Perhaps Danica was
not just some strange leftover from Europe's pre-Christian past. Maybe
she represented a very likely future for Europe - and the west in
general! She could be a preview of tomorrow's Europe!
Sleep now did not come easily. At my bedside, the cover of a tourist
magazine caught my eye: "Visit the labyrinth of Buda Hill" Labyrinth??!
Danica had just talked about a labyrinth - in Crete. I doubt I had ever
had a conversation with anyone about a labyrinth before in my life, and
now here was a magazine in my room telling about a labyrinth just down
the road! What sort of coincidence was this? Jung would probably have
called this a 'synchronicity'. This was a little spooky. What was going
on here?
I hardly knew what a labyrinth was, other than an underground maze of
some sort. But the article described labyrinths as pre-literate
poetical and philosophical statements about the meaning of life. They
expressed a worldview. I was intrigued and apprehensive at the same
time.
The next morning, Danica was equally surprised to hear about this
labyrinth, this being her first visit to Budapest. We had time to kill,
so I suggested we meet that afternoon on Buda Hill to explore this new
discovery.
So later that day, we descended into a network of underground tunnels
which had been recently renovated into a fascinating museum tracing the
history of the Hungarian people.
Danica immediately found herself at home in the first section of the
labyrinth, portraying the world of the pagan Old Europeans, worshipping
and appeasing gods and goddesses. Shaman figures and sacrifice stones
were part of this animistic worldview, which believed the physical or
natural world to be 'animated' by the spiritual or supernatural world,
as a hand might 'animate' a glove. Animism was Europe's original belief
system. Like the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, Norsemen and the
Slavs, the early Hungarians too had been animists.
The labyrinthine passages then led us into the Christian phase of
Hungarian life, when life and society was ordered by Theism , the
belief in a personal, infinite, sovereign Creator God.
Lastly we found ourselves in a satirical section on the modern era of
homo consumus , the product of the age of Materialism which followed
the Enlightenment.
At a crossroads in the labyrinth, we met a group of lost, giggling
schoolgirls. They couldn't read their map and in desperation asked us
the way out.
What a picture of today's European, I thought. Lost in history's maze
without a map! No Book. No Story. No Hope.
After we ourselves emerged into the Budapest sunlight from the
labyrinth, Danica led me across the square to the St Mathias Cathedral,
also on Buda Hill. Although this was her first visit there, she began
to explain knowledgeably to me item after item of pagan symbolism built
into this historic place of Christian worship. Carl Jung's observation
sprang to mind: 'Europe is a cathedral built on pagan foundations'.
By now, I was awakening to a new realisation of Europe's - and the
west's - possible future. The labyrinth had led us through each of the
major worldviews, depicting European progress from Animism to Theism
and then on to Materialism .
But westerners today were at a crossroads, rejecting Materialism as a
world view. For the first time in history, westerners had tried all
three options in turn - and then rejected each of them. Where could
they turn to now?
Unless there was a revival of Biblical Theism, the future would be
Animism in a new 21st century guise.
Newbigin was right. My encounter with Danica was opening my eyes to the
spiritual realities of post-Christian Europe, a Europe that could
increasingly resemble pre-Christian Old Europe - a Europe where Harry
Potter would feel very much at home.
Over the following weeks and months I found myself constantly wrestling
with the issues raised by my Budapest experience. I took down books
that had gathered dust on my shelves for years and discovered a new
relevancy in their pages. 'The Dawning of the Pagan Moon' by David
Burnett, was once such title. I was intrigued to discover that an
encounter with a white witch had led the author to research the revival
of pagan spirituality in England.
My old dog-eared copy of Francis Schaeffer's classic on
epistimology, 'He is there and he is not silent' , triggered the
formulation in my mind of a 'reality matrix' . Schaeffer argues that
the broad worldview options available are very few. They are shaped by
our answers to two basic questions. One, did creation have a personal
or impersonal origin? and two, is ultimate reality finite or infinite?
These two questions can be sketched as a matrix of two intersecting
axes: the finite/infinite axis, and the personal/impersonal axis. Thus
we are offered four alternatives:
+ the finite-impersonal option of atheism or materialism - only matter
matters;
+ the infinite-impersonal option of pantheism - everything is God (what
Schaeffer calls 'paneverythingism'), as found in Hinduism and much of
the New Age;
+ the finite-personal option of polytheism - many finite deities, as in
pre-Christian European religions, Danica's Old Europe; and
+ the infinite-personal God of the Bible: theism .
In the light of my recent experience I began to see that the western
axis has been that of atheism-theism , while the eastern worldview
belongs to the polytheism-pantheism axis. With many in the west
rejecting both theism and materialism, a new animism was on the rise,
mixing and matching elements from both polytheism and pantheism. What
other options are available?
But of course, we live in post-modern times, when all "-isms" are
considered "was-ms"! Meta-narratives, worldviews or broad explanations
of reality, are rejected. This reality matrix itself is a 'modern'
rational construct, irrelevant for post-moderns, who simply shrug their
shoulders and say, "So what?" But the post-modern mentality fits the
irrationality of the pantheism/ polytheism fusion of contradictory
concepts very well., and provides a fertile breeding ground for a new
pagan spirituality.
Unsettling? Yes, especially when we recall that the last occasion when
paganism made major inroads into European culture was under Hitler! He
took the ancient Germanic gods seriously; his henchmen Goebbels and
Himmler could have been graduates of a School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry themselves!
But God is not surprised. This is nothing new for Him. The Bible
unfolded against this sort of animistic, pagan background. Moses and
Elijah confronted pagan gods. Paul spoke the gospel into Athen's pagan,
animistic world. The Irish Celts joyfully transmitted the good news
from one pagan people to another, and evangelised much of medieval
Europe.
It's been done before. What was their secret then? How can it happen
again?
Perhaps the Harry Potter books will help us wake up to our need to
learn to communicate God's truth in new ways into a new pagan
spirituality.
Jeff Fountain
www.relay-network.org/articles/fountain4.htm
--
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|
|
| User: "George Johnson" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
02 Aug 2003 09:23:41 AM |
|
|
Oh no! Time to open a Papal Discount Store.
This would make a juicy post to be MST-ied.
"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> wrote in message
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
| Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
|
| By Jeff Fountain
|
|
| Arguably the greatest phenomenon of the new millennium so far is a
| nerdish schoolboy named Harry Potter. This pre-adolescent orphan has
| taken the literary world by storm in what Time Magazine calls 'one of
| the most bizarre and surreal' success stories in the annals of
| publishing.
|
| Adult best-seller lists have become dominated by four titles authored
| (for children!) by the previously unknown single-mother, J. K. Rowling,
| catapulting her name among such popular giants as Stephen King, Tom
| Clancy and John Grisham.
|
| On a recent visit to New Zealand, my wife and I encountered bookstores
| throwing Harry Potter parties ('bring your own broom') throughout the
| country. The release of the fourth HP title triggered a price war that
| waged in the headlines for days.
|
| Back in the Netherlands, we witnessed the same mania with bookstores -
| and even the historic church in Amsterdam where Rembrandt is buried,
| the Westerkerk - jammed with children dressed as witches, spellbound by
| Harry Potter readings at the midnight hour.
|
| The commercial success has been such that a new proverb could be added
| to the English language: 'A Rowling tome gathers no loss.' And that
| would be true for other tongues too. Harry's adventures are being
| translated into many languages, major and minor, including Icelandic,
| Basque, Korean, Chinese and Serbo-Croatian!
|
| American humorist, Dave Barry, protested in a recent tongue-in-cheek
| column that he was "not jealous of the woman who writes the Harry
| Potter books. It does not bother me that her most recent book, Harry
| Potter and the Enormous Royalty Check, has already become the best-
| selling book in world history, beating out her previous book, Harry
| Potter Purchases Microsoft."
|
|
| Perfectly innocent
|
| Before I had ever read a Harry Potter book, some of my Christian
| friends had told me how witty, richly imaginative and full of suspense
| and emotional realism the books were.
|
| However, a rather bizarre and surreal experience I had had myself not
| so long ago, with a woman who herself could have stepped straight out
| of the pages of a Harry Potter novel, had aroused in me a shrewd
| suspicion that this phenomenon could be a significant indicator of the
| future of our western culture.
|
| But firstly, just in case you've been on a desert island for the past
| year, let me explain some salient biographical facts about our hero.
|
| The fictional Harry Potter is orphaned as an infant when his wizard
| parents are murdered by an evil lord. He is left on a doorstep to be
| raised by his aunt and uncle in the world of 'Muggles' or non-magical
| folk, who hold a 'repressive, medieval attitude' toward magic. Yet it
| has been predicted that there "will be books written about Harry -
| every child in our (magical) world will know his name" (a prediction
| moving uncanningly towards fulfilment in the 'Muggles' world too!)
|
| Harry's break comes when he later attends the Howarts School of
| Witchcraft and Wizardry, preparing him to enter into his true spiritual
| identity and destiny. On his eleventh birthday, Harry is transported to
| a parallel magic world, much more exciting and captivating than
| Muggle 'Flatland'. And so our Harry - and each of his young readers -
| is initiated into an intriguing world of transfiguration, divination,
| broomstick flying, dungeons, poltergeists and headless ghosts.
|
| Spells are also part of the fascination Harry Potter's magic world
| holds for his young fans. Browsing through a booklet entitled, Why kids
| like Harry Potter , I read of a young girl who said she too would love
| to be able to cast spells on all the bullies at school, and that her
| favourite character was the the poltergeist.
|
| So, is this just perfectly innocent childhood imagination? After all,
| Christian fantasy writers like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien drew on
| themes of magic, witches and wizards. Well-known evangelical writer and
| speaker, Chuck Colson, told his radio audience that 'the magic in these
| books is purely mechanical, as opposed to occultic. That is, Harry and
| his friends cast spells, read crystal balls, and turn themselves into
| animals - but they don't make contact with a supernatural world.'
|
| A Christianity Today editorial (Jan 10, 2000) declared that Harry was
| definitely on the side of light fighting the 'dark powers', and
| eulogised the series as a 'Book of Virtues'.
|
| But these comments from usually reliable evangelical sources seem to me
| to underestimate the significant shift in the 'plausibility
| structures' - what people consider to be plausible or believable - that
| has coincided with the millennium turnover.
|
| When Tolkien and Lewis used supernatural themes last century, few
| believed literally in the reality of witches and wizards. They wrote in
| an 'age of innocence' (or of unbelief) about such things. Readers
| understood the tales to be allegories of spiritual truths.
|
| But through the cheerful normalcy with which Harry experiences the
| magical realm, is not Rowling communicating to her global audience of
| young readers something much more? Namely, that witchcraft, magic and
| wizardry are normal and good. Anyone who does not accept this obviously
| is still captive in the dysfunctional world of 'Muggles'.
|
| Today's readers are much more likely to accept the literal reality of
| the spiritual realities behind crystal balls and spells. Perhaps they
| don't believe in demons or spirits, but in some kind of spiritual
| energy or force at work.
|
| As for changing into animals, is this not making contact with the
| supernatural? I happened to catch a tv film recently in England about a
| girl who believed she changed into a wolf sometimes at night and
| attacked people. Afraid of the harm she might do in wolf form, she
| eventually found a believer in her story, who helped her get
| permanently released as a wolf on a secret reservation in Scotland.
| This new expression of an ancient shamanistic phenomenon certainly
| stretched my 'plausibility structure', but obviously had an audience
| sufficient to warrant it being broadcast on British television.
|
| While using techniques of magic and mythical creatures, Christian
| fantasy writers like Lewis and Tolkien develop their imaginary worlds
| within their own personal commitment to orthodox Christian belief in a
| sovereign God. Rowling does not share that commitment. Although she
| denies any personal belief in the magic her books portray, she still
| tells her readers, "It's important to remember that we all have magic
| inside of us."
|
| Unlike these Christian fantasies, Harry Potter is a post-Christian
| creation set within an occult cosmology. And his phenomenal popularity
| among young and old signals where our western culture seems to be
| headed.
|
| Which brings us to my own personal encounter, on a trip to Bosnia, with
| a woman named Danica. Frankly, Danica rattled my cage. She shook my
| presuppositions. She challenged some of my comfortable beliefs about
| God. She forced me to do some hard thinking about the spiritual realm.
|
| And she awakened me to a likely and unsettling scenario for the future
| of the west.
|
| Danica and I were the only English-speakers among half-a-dozen
| passengers stranded at the airport in Budapest, after missing our
| connection to Sarajevo. The next available flight would not be for two
| days! So we were bundled off in a minivan to a hotel. En route we
| inquired of each other's business in Bosnia. I was to teach in our YWAM
| DTS in the war-torn city. Danica explained that she conducted therapy
| groups for Bosnian women who had been raped or lost their menfolk
| during the recent war. I was intrigued by this very practical hands-on
| reconciliation work, so we agreed to talk more over a meal in the hotel
| dining room.
|
| As the conversation unfolded, Danica explained that she was into the
| pre-Christian beliefs of Old Europe. She handed me her card. On the
| reverse side was listed a number of tours she conducted to ancient
| sites including Malta, the labyrinth of Knossus in Crete, or to Celtic
| sites in Ireland with the Sisters of Wisdom, staying at places with
| intriguing names like the Inn of the Witch.
|
| She then described herself as a pagan, Jungian (disciple of Carl
| Jung), feminist, archetypal psychotherapist!
|
| Suddenly I felt I was getting out of my depth! I began to doubt the
| wisdom of pursuing this conversation much further. But Danica was
| getting into her element.
|
| "Old Europe enjoyed a golden age of peace as a matriarchal society,"
| she explained enthusiastically, "worshipping the Mother Goddess." But
| the advent of the bronze-age sky gods, including the Biblical Yahweh,
| had ended this harmonious age and the patriarchal age of violence and
| gender-suppression began.
|
| Old European societies, she continued, had deep insights into spiritual
| realities which had been smothered by later patriarchal eras. They had
| even known the exact locations of sacred centres, dimensional
| thresholds or gateways into the other-worlds or parallel universes...
|
| Despite a degree in history, I had apparently missed this part of my
| education. Growing up in New Zealand, the classical period had not
| appealed to me as being particularly relevant to modern life and times.
|
| I tried to assess this woman sitting opposite me. She was urbane,
| articulate, self-assured, well-read, very contemporary - and yet was
| deadly serious about everything she was telling me. She was the first
| devout pagan, packaged as a civilised, sophisticated westerner, I had
| had a conversation with. She was a real believer in the deities of
| polytheism!? What sort of weird, esoteric, fringe person was she? I
| wondered.
|
| And what was I doing listening to her gobbledegook?
|
| "Danica, who do you think Jesus of Nazareth was?" I asked, trying to
| steer the conversation towards my world.
|
| "There you go with your patriarchal 'either-or' thinking!" she smiled
| indulgently.
|
| I was encountering a disdain shared by mystics towards the possibility
| of historical persons and events revealing eternal truths.
|
| As I retired to my hotel room, my head was buzzing with questions. What
| was this all about? Was this a diabolical trap? Or could it be a divine
| encounter? Was there any truth in Danica's analysis of Europe's past?
|
| As I lay on my bed, I traced a mental map of our conversation covering
| subjects we ranged over and questions raised - a map I would later
| reproduce on paper in Sarajevo.
|
| We were poles apart in worldviews. Yet something about Danica's
| perspective rang true. What was it? Unlike so many Europeans, Danica
| strongly affirmed the spiritual realm, and was not impressed with the
| pursuit of the western materialistic dream. That in itself was
| refreshing. We shared a common understanding of the reality of the
| spiritual - if not a common understanding of the truth about that
| realm.
|
| She was concerned about the environment, about realising one's full
| potential, about peace and justice, about the balance between being and
| doing, about gender issues - questions that ought to concern biblical
| Christians.
|
| Yet her vision for a New Europe would be that of a revived Old Europe.
| Old, animistic, pagan Europe - in a new sophisticated form!
|
| Vaguely I began to recall something Leslie Newbigin had predicted about
| Europe. Newbigin, a former missionary bishop in India, challenged
| western church leaders to recognise where European society was
| heading. "What made Europe 'Europe'?" he would often ask. The ethnic,
| religious and linguistic roots of the Europeans were all eastern. Yet
| somehow Europe had developed an identity distinct from Asia. It had
| became known as The Continent - when it was the one 'continent' that
| was not a true continent! It was simply the western peninsula of the
| Eurasian landmass.
|
| So what then had made Europe 'Europe'? The simple answer, Newbigin
| said, was that about 2000 years ago, messengers came to Europe with a
| Book that told a Story that brought Hope - and transformed European
| society.
|
| But, he warned, if Europeans rejected the Book, forgot the Story and
| lost the Hope, Europe simply would merge back into its eastern roots.
| Europe would become re-Oriented!
|
| Was this then what this encounter was all about?! Perhaps Danica was
| not just some strange leftover from Europe's pre-Christian past. Maybe
| she represented a very likely future for Europe - and the west in
| general! She could be a preview of tomorrow's Europe!
|
| Sleep now did not come easily. At my bedside, the cover of a tourist
| magazine caught my eye: "Visit the labyrinth of Buda Hill" Labyrinth??!
| Danica had just talked about a labyrinth - in Crete. I doubt I had ever
| had a conversation with anyone about a labyrinth before in my life, and
| now here was a magazine in my room telling about a labyrinth just down
| the road! What sort of coincidence was this? Jung would probably have
| called this a 'synchronicity'. This was a little spooky. What was going
| on here?
|
| I hardly knew what a labyrinth was, other than an underground maze of
| some sort. But the article described labyrinths as pre-literate
| poetical and philosophical statements about the meaning of life. They
| expressed a worldview. I was intrigued and apprehensive at the same
| time.
|
| The next morning, Danica was equally surprised to hear about this
| labyrinth, this being her first visit to Budapest. We had time to kill,
| so I suggested we meet that afternoon on Buda Hill to explore this new
| discovery.
|
| So later that day, we descended into a network of underground tunnels
| which had been recently renovated into a fascinating museum tracing the
| history of the Hungarian people.
|
| Danica immediately found herself at home in the first section of the
| labyrinth, portraying the world of the pagan Old Europeans, worshipping
| and appeasing gods and goddesses. Shaman figures and sacrifice stones
| were part of this animistic worldview, which believed the physical or
| natural world to be 'animated' by the spiritual or supernatural world,
| as a hand might 'animate' a glove. Animism was Europe's original belief
| system. Like the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, Norsemen and the
| Slavs, the early Hungarians too had been animists.
|
| The labyrinthine passages then led us into the Christian phase of
| Hungarian life, when life and society was ordered by Theism , the
| belief in a personal, infinite, sovereign Creator God.
|
| Lastly we found ourselves in a satirical section on the modern era of
| homo consumus , the product of the age of Materialism which followed
| the Enlightenment.
|
| At a crossroads in the labyrinth, we met a group of lost, giggling
| schoolgirls. They couldn't read their map and in desperation asked us
| the way out.
|
| What a picture of today's European, I thought. Lost in history's maze
| without a map! No Book. No Story. No Hope.
|
| After we ourselves emerged into the Budapest sunlight from the
| labyrinth, Danica led me across the square to the St Mathias Cathedral,
| also on Buda Hill. Although this was her first visit there, she began
| to explain knowledgeably to me item after item of pagan symbolism built
| into this historic place of Christian worship. Carl Jung's observation
| sprang to mind: 'Europe is a cathedral built on pagan foundations'.
|
| By now, I was awakening to a new realisation of Europe's - and the
| west's - possible future. The labyrinth had led us through each of the
| major worldviews, depicting European progress from Animism to Theism
| and then on to Materialism .
|
| But westerners today were at a crossroads, rejecting Materialism as a
| world view. For the first time in history, westerners had tried all
| three options in turn - and then rejected each of them. Where could
| they turn to now?
|
| Unless there was a revival of Biblical Theism, the future would be
| Animism in a new 21st century guise.
|
| Newbigin was right. My encounter with Danica was opening my eyes to the
| spiritual realities of post-Christian Europe, a Europe that could
| increasingly resemble pre-Christian Old Europe - a Europe where Harry
| Potter would feel very much at home.
|
| Over the following weeks and months I found myself constantly wrestling
| with the issues raised by my Budapest experience. I took down books
| that had gathered dust on my shelves for years and discovered a new
| relevancy in their pages. 'The Dawning of the Pagan Moon' by David
| Burnett, was once such title. I was intrigued to discover that an
| encounter with a white witch had led the author to research the revival
| of pagan spirituality in England.
|
| My old dog-eared copy of Francis Schaeffer's classic on
| epistimology, 'He is there and he is not silent' , triggered the
| formulation in my mind of a 'reality matrix' . Schaeffer argues that
| the broad worldview options available are very few. They are shaped by
| our answers to two basic questions. One, did creation have a personal
| or impersonal origin? and two, is ultimate reality finite or infinite?
|
| These two questions can be sketched as a matrix of two intersecting
| axes: the finite/infinite axis, and the personal/impersonal axis. Thus
| we are offered four alternatives:
|
| + the finite-impersonal option of atheism or materialism - only matter
| matters;
|
| + the infinite-impersonal option of pantheism - everything is God (what
| Schaeffer calls 'paneverythingism'), as found in Hinduism and much of
| the New Age;
|
| + the finite-personal option of polytheism - many finite deities, as in
| pre-Christian European religions, Danica's Old Europe; and
|
| + the infinite-personal God of the Bible: theism .
|
| In the light of my recent experience I began to see that the western
| axis has been that of atheism-theism , while the eastern worldview
| belongs to the polytheism-pantheism axis. With many in the west
| rejecting both theism and materialism, a new animism was on the rise,
| mixing and matching elements from both polytheism and pantheism. What
| other options are available?
|
| But of course, we live in post-modern times, when all "-isms" are
| considered "was-ms"! Meta-narratives, worldviews or broad explanations
| of reality, are rejected. This reality matrix itself is a 'modern'
| rational construct, irrelevant for post-moderns, who simply shrug their
| shoulders and say, "So what?" But the post-modern mentality fits the
| irrationality of the pantheism/ polytheism fusion of contradictory
| concepts very well., and provides a fertile breeding ground for a new
| pagan spirituality.
|
| Unsettling? Yes, especially when we recall that the last occasion when
| paganism made major inroads into European culture was under Hitler! He
| took the ancient Germanic gods seriously; his henchmen Goebbels and
| Himmler could have been graduates of a School of Witchcraft and
| Wizardry themselves!
|
| But God is not surprised. This is nothing new for Him. The Bible
| unfolded against this sort of animistic, pagan background. Moses and
| Elijah confronted pagan gods. Paul spoke the gospel into Athen's pagan,
| animistic world. The Irish Celts joyfully transmitted the good news
| from one pagan people to another, and evangelised much of medieval
| Europe.
|
| It's been done before. What was their secret then? How can it happen
| again?
|
| Perhaps the Harry Potter books will help us wake up to our need to
| learn to communicate God's truth in new ways into a new pagan
| spirituality.
|
| Jeff Fountain
|
|
| www.relay-network.org/articles/fountain4.htm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| --
| Sent by apollonius from mail15 subdomain of com
| This is a spam protected message. Please answer with reference header.
| Posted via http://www.usenet-replayer.com/cgi/content/new
.
|
|
|
| User: "Stephanie D. Rendino" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
08 Aug 2003 11:37:45 AM |
|
|
Leave me alone! I am finishing Prisoner of Askaban right now.
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Paul Wartenberg" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
01 Aug 2003 07:37:55 PM |
|
|
<a lot of snippage involved>
The answer to the post title is YES! YES! AT LONG LAST ALL CHRISTIANS
SHALL BOW DOWN TO THE GREAT PAGAN GOD KNOWN AS THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LIST! Begin genuflecting now, you meek, feeble mortals!
BWHWHAHAHAHWEHHAHWEHAHHAHAHAHA!
Christianity will not end just because thousands if not millions of people
are reading a book about witchcraft. There's been tons of New Age Wicca and
Occult crap sold for years, and know what? There's an awful lot of churches
and temples packed with people everywhere across the planet.
There is nothing to fear as long as your faith is sustained by your
confidence. The ones who are afraid of Harry Potter are not confident in
their faith, feeling as though they must prove themselves by condemning
others for reading such 'blasphemy'.
Look, as long as you put a Zoroastrian (sp?) take on the Harry Potter series
(and the Zoroastrian beliefs have contributed greatly to the basis of
monotheistic faith from the Jews to the Christians and to the Muslims), then
the book's overriding theme of GOOD (Harry, Dumbledore) vs. EVIL (Voldemort,
Malfoys) fits well into the teachings of any Western religion.
Or, as the Unitarians would put it, 'lighten the freak up!!!'
So there.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Sams the Man" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
02 Aug 2003 05:13:42 AM |
|
|
"Paul Wartenberg" <pwarten@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:<jADWa.22221$5O3.20907@fe03.atl2.webusenet.com>...
<a lot of snippage involved>
The answer to the post title is YES! YES! AT LONG LAST ALL CHRISTIANS
SHALL BOW DOWN TO THE GREAT PAGAN GOD KNOWN AS THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LIST! Begin genuflecting now, you meek, feeble mortals!
*LOL*
Christianity will not end just because thousands if not millions of people
are reading a book about witchcraft. There's been tons of New Age Wicca and
Occult crap sold for years, and know what? There's an awful lot of churches
and temples packed with people everywhere across the planet.
Christianity is similiarly threatened by the sudden rise in the
popularity of cookbooks - ie not at all. Fear is hardly an appropriate
reaction - more of chance to read a good book IMO.
There is nothing to fear as long as your faith is sustained by your
confidence. The ones who are afraid of Harry Potter are not confident in
their faith, feeling as though they must prove themselves by condemning
others for reading such 'blasphemy'.
And indeed, are even covered by the biblical example of the same - 1
Corinthians 8.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Peter H" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianityand rebirth of Paganism? |
05 Aug 2003 07:27:03 PM |
|
|
Sam's the Man wrote:
And indeed, are even covered by the biblical example of the same - 1
Corinthians 8.
Snippabunch
"Nothing is good nor bad but thinking makes it so."
Saul of Tarsus
Pete H
--
If you're always right
there's something wrong.
anon.
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Bob Jenkins" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
04 Aug 2003 05:56:54 PM |
|
|
"Paul Wartenberg" <pwarten@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:<jADWa.22221$5O3.20907@fe03.atl2.webusenet.com>...
<a lot of snippage involved>
The answer to the post title is YES! YES! AT LONG LAST ALL CHRISTIANS
SHALL BOW DOWN TO THE GREAT PAGAN GOD KNOWN AS THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LIST! Begin genuflecting now, you meek, feeble mortals!
BWHWHAHAHAHWEHHAHWEHAHHAHAHAHA!
Christianity will not end just because thousands if not millions of people
are reading a book about witchcraft. There's been tons of New Age Wicca and
Occult crap sold for years, and know what? There's an awful lot of churches
and temples packed with people everywhere across the planet.
I read the whole rant and have to agree -- yes, Harry Potter's
popularity is boosted by the current rising interest in wicca / magic
/ naturopathy / organic foods / feminism / yoga and so forth. And
yes, that interest is to some extent displacing Christianity,
especially in college educated women. I don't think Harry Potter is
particularly boosting that interest, though, it's the other way
around. For what it's worth, I'm a male techno-atheist, whose
worldview isn't affected by this much one way or the other.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Sams the Man" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
05 Aug 2003 05:32:39 PM |
|
|
(Bob Jenkins) wrote in message news:<a5d787df.0308041456.4ed5d3c6@posting.google.com>...
"Paul Wartenberg" <pwarten@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:<jADWa.22221$5O3.20907@fe03.atl2.webusenet.com>...
<a lot of snippage involved>
The answer to the post title is YES! YES! AT LONG LAST ALL CHRISTIANS
SHALL BOW DOWN TO THE GREAT PAGAN GOD KNOWN AS THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LIST! Begin genuflecting now, you meek, feeble mortals!
BWHWHAHAHAHWEHHAHWEHAHHAHAHAHA!
Christianity will not end just because thousands if not millions of people
are reading a book about witchcraft. There's been tons of New Age Wicca and
Occult crap sold for years, and know what? There's an awful lot of churches
and temples packed with people everywhere across the planet.
I read the whole rant and have to agree -- yes, Harry Potter's
popularity is boosted by the current rising interest in wicca / magic
/ naturopathy / organic foods / feminism / yoga and so forth.
Organic foods?
Feminism?
having read Harry Potter, you think it is a feminist manifesto? I
think actually an ardent feminist would be a bit distressed by the
book.
And Yoga??
And
yes, that interest is to some extent displacing Christianity,
especially in college educated women. I don't think Harry Potter is
particularly boosting that interest, though, it's the other way
around.
You might want to back that up with some evidence.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bob Jenkins" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
06 Aug 2003 12:31:48 PM |
|
|
(Sam's the Man) wrote in message news:<e8e2ac15.0308051432.643028b4@posting.google.com>...
bob_jenkins@burtleburtle.net (Bob Jenkins) wrote in message news:<a5d787df.0308041456.4ed5d3c6@posting.google.com>...
I read the whole rant and have to agree -- yes, Harry Potter's
popularity is boosted by the current rising interest in wicca / magic
/ naturopathy / organic foods / feminism / yoga and so forth.
Organic foods?
That scene with Ron and the slugs ... hm, maybe not.
Feminism?
Rita Skeeter, liberal thinker! Again maybe not.
And Yoga??
Hum. Hum. Nope, I draw a blank on that one. Have any Harry Potter
characters been seen doing anything vaguely yoga-like? Professor
McGonagall was scolded for sitting too stiffly once.
The original rant was about the same grouping of interests as I've
seen. I was saying, yeah, I've seen it too. Of those interests, only
wicca, magic, and naturopathy seem related to Harry Potter.
After reading Harry Potter I read "The House with a Clock in its
Walls", on the theory that fictional children's books involving magic
are entertaining. That took magic more seriously than the Harry
Potter books, and probably for that reason was not as likeable. I've
given up exploring that vein of books. That's my only evidence one
way or the other about Harry Potter books leading to an interest in
magic.
And yes, that interest is to some extent displacing Christianity,
especially in college educated women. I don't think Harry Potter is
particularly boosting that interest, though, it's the other way
around.
You might want to back that up with some evidence.
The original rant was claiming this. It even described interest in
Harry Potter as a symptom, and didn't describe it as a cause. My post
IS evidence (circumstantial, "I saw it too") backing up the original
rant. I suppose I could give evidence for that evidence by being
cross-examined, but I'm not interested in that, so I'll leave it
unsubstantiated hearsay.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Sams the Man" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
07 Aug 2003 05:31:35 PM |
|
|
(Bob Jenkins) wrote in message news:<a5d787df.0308060931.6687fca4@posting.google.com>...
samdekat@hotmail.com (Sam's the Man) wrote in message news:<e8e2ac15.0308051432.643028b4@posting.google.com>...
(Bob Jenkins) wrote in message news:<a5d787df.0308041456.4ed5d3c6@posting.google.com>...
I read the whole rant and have to agree -- yes, Harry Potter's
popularity is boosted by the current rising interest in wicca / magic
/ naturopathy / organic foods / feminism / yoga and so forth.
Organic foods?
That scene with Ron and the slugs ... hm, maybe not.
Feminism?
Rita Skeeter, liberal thinker! Again maybe not.
And Yoga??
Hum. Hum. Nope, I draw a blank on that one. Have any Harry Potter
characters been seen doing anything vaguely yoga-like? Professor
McGonagall was scolded for sitting too stiffly once.
I think that that is more of an occupational health and safety issue,
not so much yoga.
The original rant was about the same grouping of interests as I've
seen. I was saying, yeah, I've seen it too. Of those interests, only
wicca, magic, and naturopathy seem related to Harry Potter.
Naturopathy - the Magical community use 'Healers' instead of Doctors.
The Healers use magic to heal. There is no magic in naturopathy,
natruopathy assumes by the measure of collected wisdom that certain
plants by force of their chemical composition have the ability to aid
healing.
Wicca - this again is a religion which AFAIK relys upon drawing power
from nature and shaping it to do other things. Nothing like a wicca
ceremony occurs in any Harry Potter book.
And yes, that interest is to some extent displacing Christianity,
especially in college educated women. I don't think Harry Potter is
particularly boosting that interest, though, it's the other way
around.
You might want to back that up with some evidence.
The original rant was claiming this. It even described interest in
Harry Potter as a symptom, and didn't describe it as a cause.
Again, I haven't heard of any real drop in the numbers of Christians
in colleges or universities. In my country, I recently read an article
in which the explosion in the number of university students becoming
Christians and then openly declaring same was described in terms of
being a worrying trend. The REASON we should be worried about that
trend was not fully elucidated.
What we a generally seeing in most western countries is a drop in
nominalism, that is unthinkingly branding yourself as a Christian.
This trend is not a negative thing for Christians who have thought
about the implications of the faith and made a committment to it.
Frankly, I think it's great.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bob Jenkins" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
08 Aug 2003 10:11:44 AM |
|
|
(Sam's the Man) wrote in message news:<e8e2ac15.0308071431.25083ddb@posting.google.com>...
bob_jenkins@burtleburtle.net (Bob Jenkins) wrote in message news:<a5d787df.0308060931.6687fca4@posting.google.com>...
(Sam's the Man) wrote in message news:<e8e2ac15.0308051432.643028b4@posting.google.com>...
bob_jenkins@burtleburtle.net (Bob Jenkins) wrote in message news:<a5d787df.0308041456.4ed5d3c6@posting.google.com>...
And yes, that interest is to some extent displacing Christianity,
especially in college educated women. I don't think Harry Potter is
particularly boosting that interest, though, it's the other way
around.
You might want to back that up with some evidence.
The original rant was claiming this. It even described interest in
Harry Potter as a symptom, and didn't describe it as a cause.
What we a generally seeing in most western countries is a drop in
nominalism, that is unthinkingly branding yourself as a Christian.
This trend is not a negative thing for Christians who have thought
about the implications of the faith and made a committment to it.
Frankly, I think it's great.
Really? That WOULD be interesting. I'll second that, most of the
Christians I've seen have never thought about it much. Same goes for
some of the atheists! I'm all in favor of thinking. Makes one less
gullible.
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "NorthWitch" |
|
| Title: Ping Catherine (was Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism?) |
03 Aug 2003 02:24:18 PM |
|
|
"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> skrev i melding
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
Snipped a humongous waste of space!
Oh Catherine, over here Catherine... *Hint, hint*
~Witchy
.
|
|
|
| User: "NorthWitch" |
|
| Title: Re: Ping Catherine (was Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism?) |
08 Aug 2003 02:52:38 PM |
|
|
"Fish Eye no Miko" <fisheye@deadmoon.circus> skrev i melding
news:y0BYa.7393$2g.4902@fed1read05...
"NorthWitch" <siss-rye@NO_SPAM_4_online.no> wrote in message
news:AjdXa.17727$Hb.295351@news4.e.nsc.no...
"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> skrev:
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
Snipped a humongous waste of space!
Oh Catherine, over here Catherine... *Hint, hint*
I've read it. I'm... debating. It's really long and some of it is
veeeerrrrryyyyy boring. OTOH, there'd a few good riffs, and... I'll see.
Thanks for the heads up, NorthWitch!
Catherine Johnson.
Oooooh *dancing on tip-toes* I can hardly wait!!!
~Witchy
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Ike Milligan" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
02 Aug 2003 07:18:28 AM |
|
|
"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> wrote in message
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
Arguably the greatest phenomenon of the new millennium so far is a
nerdish schoolboy named Harry Potter. This pre-adolescent orphan has
taken the literary world by storm in what Time Magazine calls 'one of
the most bizarre and surreal' success stories in the annals of
publishing.
Adult best-seller lists have become dominated by four titles authored
(for children!) by the previously unknown single-mother, J. K. Rowling,
catapulting her name among such popular giants as Stephen King, Tom
Clancy and John Grisham.
<had to be snipped>
Perhaps the Harry Potter books will help us wake up to our need to
learn to communicate God's truth in new ways into a new pagan
spirituality.
Jeff Fountain
www.relay-network.org/articles/fountain4.htm
--
Sent by apollonius from mail15 subdomain of com
This is a spam protected message. Please answer with reference header.
Posted via http://www.usenet-replayer.com/cgi/content/new
Paganism as it is now practiced is based on Christian superstitions from the
dark ages. Harry Potter stories' success is a psychological play on
childrens' power fantasies since they are treated as second-class citizens
and therefore love to imagine powerful beings.
.
|
|
|
| User: "NEtRENCHERPRIME" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
03 Aug 2003 11:34:24 AM |
|
|
"Ike Milligan" <accordiondoc@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:<bggaat$6c5$1@slb5.atl.mindspring.net>...
"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> wrote in message
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
Arguably the greatest phenomenon of the new millennium so far is a
nerdish schoolboy named Harry Potter. This pre-adolescent orphan has
taken the literary world by storm in what Time Magazine calls 'one of
the most bizarre and surreal' success stories in the annals of
publishing.
Adult best-seller lists have become dominated by four titles authored
(for children!) by the previously unknown single-mother, J. K. Rowling,
catapulting her name among such popular giants as Stephen King, Tom
Clancy and John Grisham.
<had to be snipped>
Perhaps the Harry Potter books will help us wake up to our need to
learn to communicate God's truth in new ways into a new pagan
spirituality.
Jeff Fountain
www.relay-network.org/articles/fountain4.htm
--
Sent by apollonius from mail15 subdomain of com
This is a spam protected message. Please answer with reference header.
Posted via http://www.usenet-replayer.com/cgi/content/new
Paganism as it is now practiced is based on Christian superstitions from the
dark ages.
These superstitions were left over from the pre-Christian era of
paganism. Witch-burning and ritual human sacrifice had been a common
practice among societies long before Christianity existed. Indeed,
the pagan Romans practiced witch-burning on the Christians.
BCNU
NEtRENCHERPRIME
--
"And when we die, there'll be a multi coloured sweatshop in the sky."
CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE
.
|
|
|
| User: "Ike Milligan" |
|
| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
03 Aug 2003 01:36:42 PM |
|
|
"NEtRENCHERPRIME" <netrencher@in-tch.com> wrote in message
news:598c70d4.0308030834.520bbb3b@posting.google.com...
"Ike Milligan" <accordiondoc@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:<bggaat$6c5$1@slb5.atl.mindspring.net>...
"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> wrote in message
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
Arguably the greatest phenomenon of the new millennium so far is a
nerdish schoolboy named Harry Potter. This pre-adolescent orphan has
taken the literary world by storm in what Time Magazine calls 'one of
the most bizarre and surreal' success stories in the annals of
publishing.
Adult best-seller lists have become dominated by four titles authored
(for children!) by the previously unknown single-mother, J. K.
Rowling,
catapulting her name among such popular giants as Stephen King, Tom
Clancy and John Grisham.
<had to be snipped>
Perhaps the Harry Potter books will help us wake up to our need to
learn to communicate God's truth in new ways into a new pagan
spirituality.
Jeff Fountain
www.relay-network.org/articles/fountain4.htm
--
Sent by apollonius from mail15 subdomain of com
This is a spam protected message. Please answer with reference header.
Posted via http://www.usenet-replayer.com/cgi/content/new
Paganism as it is now practiced is based on Christian superstitions from
the
dark ages.
These superstitions were left over from the pre-Christian era of
paganism. Witch-burning and ritual human sacrifice had been a common
practice among societies long before Christianity existed. Indeed,
the pagan Romans practiced witch-burning on the Christians.
BCNU
NEtRENCHERPRIME
The operative word is "left-over". The knowledge of these practices was
preserved by Christian scribes. Human sacrifice is practiced by all peoples
today. Sometimes in the form of suicide, sometimes by excercise of the
death penalty. Witch-burning was a form of human sacrifice, as was the Nazi
holocaust. There were often economic reasons to kill the victims, but not
always. The destruction of the WTC was human sacrifice as was the avoidable
ruination of the health of the workers at ground zero afterwards. To say
human sacrifice was a prime characterisitic of Pagans is to tar them with
the same brush everyone else should be tarred with. My point was only that
we have little or no practical knowledge of the ancient practices other than
those told by Christian writers, who could not be expected to give an
accurate picture of whatever real utility they had, whether psychological,
..ecological, or shamanisitic.
--
"And when we die, there'll be a multi coloured sweatshop in the sky."
CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE SEX MACHINE
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| User: "NEtRENCHERPRIME" |
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| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
04 Aug 2003 09:44:43 AM |
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Peter H <pmhilton@mfx.net> wrote in message news:<3F2D6F4D.70208@mfx.net>...
Ike Milligan wrote:
. My point was only that
we have little or no practical knowledge of the ancient practices other than
those told by Christian writers, who could not be expected to give an
accurate picture of whatever real utility they had, whether psychological,
.ecological, or shamanisitic.
As futher support to what Ike is trying to establish here, consider the
Conquistadores.
As soon as they achieved the least glimmer of understanding into the
religious proactices of central America, they were repelled and
horrified to find that elements basic to religions everywhere
It is true that the basic tenets to all the worlds religions seem
quite similar. Read THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY by Aldous Huxley for a
more complete picture. Huxley says (quite rightly) that the
difficulty with religions such as (popular) Christianity and Islam is
that they are temporal religions. This means they are looking for an
ending or an apocalypse where most religions do not. It gives them
something to 'build' toward rather than building themselves.
should
have arisen prior to direct intervention (read here steam rollering) of
The One And Only True Church And All Others Are Literally The Spawn Of
The Devil. Consequently, since they were totally incapable of realiziing
their error, untold wealth in Aztec, Maya & Inca manuscripts was
destroyed out of hand since those writings MUST have been inspsired by
the Devil Incarnate.
They were certainly morons. This again was a practice left over from
pagan times. Humanity has always known that information is the key,
and it's no mistake that the library at Alexandria was wiped out three
times by three different groups. Once by the Pagan Romans, once by
the Muslims, and once by the Christian Romans. Though I can't provide
an exact citation right now, there was a Chinese emperor who burned a
massive library in his own country. Not to mention the Egyptians
attempts to wipe Akhenaten, their own Pharaoh, from history. I know I
utilize the word 'pagan' loosely, but it does prove a point. The
church was doing only what had been done for untold centuries before
it existed.
Just one example - but "Holy Mother Church" [sometimes including but not
restricted to the Church of Rome] in many times & places has often been
the ultimate instrument of hate & destruction.
Absolutely. The point to be made is so were pagans like Constantine,
Alexander the Great, and atheists like Pol Pot the ultimate
instruments of hate & destruction. To focus on one particular group
is to erroniously forget they were not the latest, nor the greatest.
When we see the problem is intrinsic not to a particular group of
people, but to humanity itself, then we might start getting some of
this problem fixed.
BCNU
NEtRENCHERPRIME
--
"See the girl on the TV dressed in a bikini. She doesn't think so,
but she's dressed for the H-Bomb." GANG OF FOUR
.
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| User: "Ike Milligan" |
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| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
08 Aug 2003 08:38:27 AM |
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"NEtRENCHERPRIME" <netrencher@in-tch.com> wrote in message
news:598c70d4.0308040644.31e636f3@posting.google.com...
Peter H <pmhilton@mfx.net> wrote in message
news:<3F2D6F4D.70208@mfx.net>...
Ike Milligan wrote:
. My point was only that
we have little or no practical knowledge of the ancient practices other
than
those told by Christian writers, who could not be expected to give an
accurate picture of whatever real utility they had, whether
psychological,
.ecological, or shamanisitic.
As futher support to what Ike is trying to establish here, consider the
Conquistadores.
As soon as they achieved the least glimmer of understanding into the
religious proactices of central America, they were repelled and
horrified to find that elements basic to religions everywhere
It is true that the basic tenets to all the worlds religions seem
quite similar. Read THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY by Aldous Huxley for a
more complete picture. Huxley says (quite rightly) that the
difficulty with religions such as (popular) Christianity and Islam is
that they are temporal religions. This means they are looking for an
ending or an apocalypse where most religions do not. It gives them
something to 'build' toward rather than building themselves.
should
have arisen prior to direct intervention (read here steam rollering) of
The One And Only True Church And All Others Are Literally The Spawn Of
The Devil. Consequently, since they were totally incapable of realiziing
their error, untold wealth in Aztec, Maya & Inca manuscripts was
destroyed out of hand since those writings MUST have been inspsired by
the Devil Incarnate.
They were certainly morons. This again was a practice left over from
pagan times. Humanity has always known that information is the key,
and it's no mistake that the library at Alexandria was wiped out three
times by three different groups. Once by the Pagan Romans, once by
the Muslims, and once by the Christian Romans. Though I can't provide
an exact citation right now, there was a Chinese emperor who burned a
massive library in his own country. Not to mention the Egyptians
attempts to wipe Akhenaten, their own Pharaoh, from history. I know I
utilize the word 'pagan' loosely, but it does prove a point. The
church was doing only what had been done for untold centuries before
it existed.
Just one example - but "Holy Mother Church" [sometimes including but not
restricted to the Church of Rome] in many times & places has often been
the ultimate instrument of hate & destruction.
Absolutely. The point to be made is so were pagans like Constantine,
Alexander the Great, and atheists like Pol Pot the ultimate
instruments of hate & destruction. To focus on one particular group
is to erroniously forget they were not the latest, nor the greatest.
When we see the problem is intrinsic not to a particular group of
people, but to humanity itself, then we might start getting some of
this problem fixed.
BCNU
NEtRENCHERPRIME
Well EXCUUUSE us for picking on the Crhistians.
--
"See the girl on the TV dressed in a bikini. She doesn't think so,
but she's dressed for the H-Bomb." GANG OF FOUR
.
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| User: "NEtRENCHERPRIME" |
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| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
18 Aug 2003 01:51:38 PM |
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"Ike Milligan" <accordiondoc@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:<bh09ev$p26$9@slb5.atl.mindspring.net>...
"NEtRENCHERPRIME" <netrencher@in-tch.com> wrote in message
news:598c70d4.0308040644.31e636f3@posting.google.com...
Peter H <pmhilton@mfx.net> wrote in message
news:<3F2D6F4D.70208@mfx.net>...
Ike Milligan wrote:
Just one example - but "Holy Mother Church" [sometimes including but not
restricted to the Church of Rome] in many times & places has often been
the ultimate instrument of hate & destruction.
Absolutely. The point to be made is so were pagans like Constantine,
Alexander the Great, and atheists like Pol Pot the ultimate
instruments of hate & destruction. To focus on one particular group
is to erroniously forget they were not the latest, nor the greatest.
When we see the problem is intrinsic not to a particular group of
people, but to humanity itself, then we might start getting some of
this problem fixed.
BCNU
NEtRENCHERPRIME
Well EXCUUUSE us for picking on the Crhistians.
Sure. No offense was taken; only an observation that the problem is
intrinsically related to the human animal; and not caught up
particularly in religious, political, nor philosophical thought. To
pick on the Christians exclusively is akin to throwing a pin into the
ocean.
BCNU
NEtRENCHERPRIME
--
"See the girl on the TV dressed in a bikini. She doesn't think so,
but she's dressed for the H-Bomb." GANG OF FOUR
.
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| User: "Jeff Jones" |
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| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
02 Aug 2003 09:02:09 AM |
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"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> wrote in message
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
*snipped out a bunch of supreme silliness*
But God is not surprised. This is nothing new for Him. The Bible
unfolded against this sort of animistic, pagan background. Moses and
Elijah confronted pagan gods. Paul spoke the gospel into Athen's pagan,
animistic world. The Irish Celts joyfully transmitted the good news
from one pagan people to another, and evangelised much of medieval
Europe.
It's been done before. What was their secret then? How can it happen
again?
Perhaps the Harry Potter books will help us wake up to our need to
learn to communicate God's truth in new ways into a new pagan
spirituality.
Jeff Fountain
The answer tot he subject line question is a resounding no. What the writer
fails to take into account is that children, unlike Christians, find it
rather easy to tell what is make believe and what is real. They don't
appear to lose this ability until they grow up and start taking religion
seriously.
Jeff Jones
Austin, Texas
aa #2044
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| User: "Dirk Bruere at Neopax" |
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| Title: Re: Is Harry Potter's popularity a sign of the coming end of Christianity and rebirth of Paganism? |
01 Aug 2003 05:04:36 PM |
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"Apollonius" <u106475830@spawnkill.ip-mobilphone.net> wrote in message
news:l.1059773577.1942779541@[207.89.160.147]...
Harry Potter and the Future of Europe
By Jeff Fountain
replying from alt.religion.asatru...
...
When Tolkien and Lewis used supernatural themes last century, few
believed literally in the reality of witches and wizards. They wrote in
an 'age of innocence' (or of unbelief) about such things. Readers
understood the tales to be allegories of spiritual truths.
ie Xianity had a monopoly on 'real' supernatural miracles.
But through the cheerful normalcy with which Harry experiences the
magical realm, is not Rowling communicating to her global audience of
young readers something much more? Namely, that witchcraft, magic and
wizardry are normal and good. Anyone who does not accept this obviously
is still captive in the dysfunctional world of 'Muggles'.
Or the opposite, that all such claims are works of fiction, including people
rising from the dead.
Today's readers are much more likely to accept the literal reality of
the spiritual realities behind crystal balls and spells. Perhaps they
don't believe in demons or spirits, but in some kind of spiritual
energy or force at work.
As for changing into animals, is this not making contact with the
supernatural? I happened to catch a tv film recently in England about a
girl who believed she changed into a wolf sometimes at night and
attacked people. Afraid of the harm she might do in wolf form, she
eventually found a believer in her story, who helped her get
permanently released as a wolf on a secret reservation in Scotland.
This new expression of an ancient shamanistic phenomenon certainly
stretched my 'plausibility structure', but obviously had an audience
sufficient to warrant it being broadcast on British television.
Take a tab of acid and I bet you'd be barking at the moon.
Shamanism is one thing, insanity another.
Which brings us to my own personal encounter, on a trip to Bosnia, with
a woman named Danica. Frankly, Danica rattled my cage. She shook my
presuppositions. She challenged some of my comfortable beliefs about
God. She forced me to do some hard thinking about the spiritual realm.
And she awakened me to a likely and unsettling scenario for the future
of the west.
Danica and I were the only English-speakers among half-a-dozen
passengers stranded at the airport in Budapest, after missing our
connection to Sarajevo. The next available flight would not be for two
days! So we were bundled off in a minivan to a hotel. En route we
inquired of each other's business in Bosnia. I was to teach in our YWAM
DTS in the war-torn city. Danica explained that she conducted therapy
groups for Bosnian women who had been raped or lost their menfolk
during the recent war. I was intrigued by this very practical hands-on
reconciliation work, so we agreed to talk more over a meal in the hotel
dining room.
As the conversation unfolded, Danica explained that she was into the
pre-Christian beliefs of Old Europe. She handed me her card. On the
reverse side was listed a number of tours she conducted to ancient
sites including Malta, the labyrinth of Knossus in Crete, or to Celtic
sites in Ireland with the Sisters of Wisdom, staying at places with
intriguing names like the Inn of the Witch.
She then described herself as a pagan, Jungian (disciple of Carl
Jung), feminist, archetypal psychotherapist!
Suddenly I felt I was getting out of my depth! I began to doubt the
wisdom of pursuing this conversation much further. But Danica was
getting into her element.
Yes! Don't talk to plausible pagans because they might corrupt you!
"Old Europe enjoyed a golden age of peace as a matriarchal society,"
she explained enthusiastically, "worshipping the Mother Goddess." But
the advent of the bronze-age sky gods, including the Biblical Yahweh,
had ended this harmonious age and the patriarchal age of violence and
gender-suppression began.
Old European societies, she continued, had deep insights into spiritual
realities which had been smothered by later patriarchal eras. They had
even known the exact locations of sacred centres, dimensional
thresholds or gateways into the other-worlds or parallel universes...
Despite a degree in history, I had apparently missed this part of my
education. Growing up in New Zealand, the classical period had not
appealed to me as being particularly relevant to modern life and times.
I tried to assess this woman sitting opposite me. She was urbane,
articulate, self-assured, well-read, very contemporary - and yet was
deadly serious about everything she was telling me. She was the first
devout pagan, packaged as a civilised, sophisticated westerner, I had
had a conversation with. She was a real believer in the deities of
polytheism!? What sort of weird, esoteric, fringe person was she? I
wondered.
Lucky she wasn't an Odinist then, or you'd have been shitting your pants.
And what was I doing listening to her gobbledegook?
As opposed to your own biblical version?
"Danica, who do you think Jesus of Nazareth was?" I asked, trying to
steer the conversation towards my world.
"There you go with your patriarchal 'either-or' thinking!" she smiled
indulgently.
I was encountering a disdain shared by mystics towards the possibility
of historical persons and events revealing eternal truths.
As I retired to my hotel room, my head was buzzing with questions. What
was this all about? Was this a diabolical trap? Or could it be a divine
encounter? Was there any truth in Danica's analysis of Europe's past?
'Partially' on all counts.
Yet her vision for a New Europe would be that of a revived Old Europe.
Old, animistic, pagan Europe - in a new sophisticated form!
YES!
Vaguely I began to recall something Leslie Newbigin had predicted about
Europe. Newbigin, a former missionary bishop in India, challenged
western church leaders to recognise where European society was
heading. "What made Europe 'Europe'?" he would often ask. The ethnic,
religious and linguistic roots of the Europeans were all eastern. Yet
Wrong.
somehow Europe had developed an identity distinct from Asia. It had
became known as The Continent - when it was the one 'continent' that
was not a true continent! It was simply the western peninsula of the
Eurasian landmass.
So what then had made Europe 'Europe'? The simple answer, Newbigin
said, was that about 2000 years ago, messengers came to Europe with a
Book that told a Story that brought Hope - and transformed European
society.
For the worse IMHO.
But, he warned, if Europeans rejected the Book, forgot the Story and
lost the Hope, Europe simply would merge back into its eastern roots.
Europe would become re-Oriented!
Crap.
Eastern roots? Like the GrecoRoman pagan tradition?
Or Eastern like the Norse pantheon?
You're clearly getting into the trap of believing that the IndoEuropeans
came from the East eg *from* India.
Which is not true.
Danica immediately found herself at home in the first section of the
labyrinth, portraying the world of the pagan Old Europeans, worshipping
and appeasing gods and goddesses. Shaman figures and sacrifice stones
were part of this animistic worldview, which believed the physical or
natural world to be 'animated' by the spiritual or supernatural world,
as a hand might 'animate' a glove. Animism was Europe's original belief
system. Like the Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, Norsemen and the
Slavs, the early Hungarians too had been animists.
Bollocks - unless one is talking of something in excess of 4000 years back.
And even then that's just a guess.
The labyrinthine passages then led us into the Christian phase of
Hungarian life, when life and society was ordered by Theism , the
belief in a personal, infinite, sovereign Creator God.
Lastly we found ourselves in a satirical section on the modern era of
homo consumus , the product of the age of Materialism which followed
the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment was when the weight of Xianity began to be lifted from us.
At a crossroads in the labyrinth, we met a group of lost | |
