tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31875695.post1905791181905742645..comments2024-02-07T21:24:37.121-08:00Comments on Blogtrotter: Pierre Chuvin's "A Chronicle of the Last Pagans": Book ReviewJohn L. Murphy / "FionnchĂș"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16616876266772470719noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31875695.post-75406727413037353012009-12-18T21:27:04.940-08:002009-12-18T21:27:04.940-08:00I'd imagine that the ancient pagan rituals wer...I'd imagine that the ancient pagan rituals were intensely immediate & relevant to the practitioners, as they stemmed from the same rhythmic, cyclical tasks as everyday life -- fertilization of the soil and fertility rites dovetailed, both being ostensibly pragmatic means of manipulating one's surroundings.<br /><br />If modern christianity bores, it is because it offers no relevancy, either via direct intercession in mundane affairs, or with its promise of an idyllic afterlife as relief from a world that, for most, is far from a vale of tears.<br /><br />Modern pagans sought to get back in tune with nature, but needed to consciously 'unlearn' our enlightened understanding of its workings. Why bother appeasing a gaia spirit via a dance, when we can achieve our results through the miracle of nitrogen fixation via a winter crop of vetch?tamerlanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31875695.post-91504592185189957422009-12-18T16:37:03.716-08:002009-12-18T16:37:03.716-08:00Greg, keep posted for my next reviews this coming ...Greg, keep posted for my next reviews this coming week-- timed for the holidays-- about neo-paganism & witches. Observers wonder if its modern varieties can keep up their oppositional spirit once they turn respectable alternatives. <br /><br />Bo, thanks for the nod as always; after all you share with me, I'm happy to return the nudge. <br /><br />Tamerlane, great comment from Mattingly, and about jury duty. I guess the Roman enforcement indeed counters the spin of the modern pagan movement, which tries to be a more energetic replacement for mainstream monotheistic ceremony, dulled by repetition. In time perhaps circles and covens too get to be the same old same old? I wonder if our ancestors got as bored in oak groves as many will this season in wreathed churches?John L. Murphy / "FionnchĂș"https://www.blogger.com/profile/16616876266772470719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31875695.post-12313145725978992672009-12-17T10:58:17.410-08:002009-12-17T10:58:17.410-08:00Harold Mattingly's "The Man in the Roman ...Harold Mattingly's "The Man in the Roman Street" which still stands out as an intellectual nugget after 60 years, devotes three chapters to the role of religion in the Roman Empire.<br /><br />Mattingly, too, notes that "pagani' derives from the same root as "paisan" or "peasant", and that worship of the old gods lingered longest in rustic areas, whereas Christianity began as a fad among the urban elite.<br /><br />Worship in Rome was intertwined with civic life, and was perceived by the Roman more as a civic duty -- like our present-day jury service -- than a charismatic, spiritual relationship with gods. Christianity didn't directly replace the Roman state religion (in people's minds at least); it made it obsolete by offering an entirely new "product".tamerlanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31875695.post-33378458917308571432009-12-15T14:29:05.195-08:002009-12-15T14:29:05.195-08:00A very useful review.
Your point about belief an...A very useful review. <br /><br />Your point about belief and power is interesting in relation to the emergence of modern neo-paganism as part of the 'alternative' society although by now, perhaps, no longer restricted to this.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11726139484953008689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31875695.post-8170091121170546062009-12-15T13:42:52.215-08:002009-12-15T13:42:52.215-08:00This is interesting. I shall have to get it!This is interesting. I shall have to get it!Bohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333815636018847583noreply@blogger.com