Spontaneous Blog Carnival?
It must be something in the aether...Discussions of Christianity are breaking out on Pagan blogs everywhere.
It's odd, but whenever I post anything related to the subject of Christianity at my own blog, the number of hits and comments--from Pagans--goes way up. Maybe I'm not the only person to have noticed this, because over the last few days, numerous members of the Pagan/Heathen blogosphere have posted entries on the topic of Christo-Paganism and related topics. Some bloggers are concerned, some are puzzled, and some are embracing at least some Christian concepts, if not Christianity, per se.
Generally speaking, a Blog Carnival or a Synchro-blog event, like the Brighid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading described below, is planned in advance. This one, however, seems to be just happening. Recent related posts include:
- Grace at Christine's This Shaking Keeps Me Steady
- What's my Problem with Sharing Craft with Christianity? by Pitch over at Here's the Pitch
- Paganism and the Threat of Assimilation by Pagan author Gus diZerega on his blog
- A Path by any Other Name: The Christo-Pagan Problem at Soul Bites Blog
- What is a Christian? at Quaker Pagan Reflections
- Is Christ Special? at Meadowsweet and Myrrh
- And last (but very much not least) a news round up over on The Wild Hunt Blog that asks the question, Can You Be a Christo-Pagan in Prison?
Why so much interest? Explanations or speculations on the phenomenon are welcome.
10 comments:
Wow! A blog carnival! I'm no doubt the scary clown!
I'm seeing a lot of different facets of Christianity and Neo-Paganism in all these posts. Personal. Metaphysical. Spiritual. Faith. Practice. Doctrine. Ideology. How to play together. How to play each in our own fort.
I'm being reminded that direct experiences of Deities and Guardians overwhelm questions of doctrinal faith and observance. That doctrine and observance often function as mediators intended to buffer and disperse the illumination and living joy of direct experience. That direct experience speaks from the heart and from the spirit in languages that go beyond the words of doctrine and the words of established observances.
Learning. Changing. Sometimes gifts of Wisdom...
You weren't kidding about there being something in the air! The very first post you listed, "Grace," echoed some essential thoughts I had just yesterday when reading Jordan Paper's The Deities Are Many (as I mentioned in a comment on my own blog already)... In all his talk of relationship with deity/deities (in particular, those of nature) there was obligation, duty, weakness, pity and even fear--but there was no sense of grace, and thus, for me, no sense of love for Spirit.
Now I feel as though I should either write out all my blog post ideas at once, or just sit back and enjoy the ride as others articulate similar ideas so beautifully. ;)
I've been noticing this phenomenon myself... my theory is that it is (in part) a reaction to fundamentalist Paganism (the kind that says "all Christians are bad, and all Christian values are deeply suspect").
As Gus di Zerega suggests, interfaith dialogue is good, but we must not lose sight of the Pagan vision, which is, imho, that "Paradise" (a word that originally meant "garden") is already here, on earth, and it's just a matter of changing consciousness in order to enjoy it; and that sensuality and sexuality and freedom of thought and conscience are sacred and divine gifts. If there are Christians out there who embrace similar values, then they are allies, not adversaries.
And elsewhere in the blogosphere, the discussion continues at Christo-Pagan.
(Thanks to Pitch for the link.)
And the Christians reflect on the question of What is a Christian, raised at Quaker Pagan Reflections in the post, What is a Christian? at There Goes Rhymin Simon.
Oops! And Notes From the Underground, host, a few months back, of a Synchroblog on Christianity and Paganism, has also taken note of the phenomenon of Pagan bloggers tackling the subject from the other side of the relationship.
So there's still more blogging out there on the subject of the interface of Christianity and Paganism:
David Miley, over at Silver Maple, muses today on how our Spiritual Language--whether Christian or Pagan--influences both how we encounter Spirit and how we respond to others who do the same.
And, a few weeks back, beaming in on the same wave in the aether that motivated my original post on the topic of Christians and Pagans, HysteryWitch, a Pagan who is exploring Quaker beliefs, observes that "although I fully understood that many Friends are Christ-centered, I did not know that there are some who consider those of us who are not as unqualified to share in community with them" at her blog, Still Not Convinced?
Ashes of Jezebel asks us Can One be Both a Christian and a Pagan/Witch?, and finds enough interest in the question to then give us More on the Subject of Christian Witches three days later.
And Jason Pitzl-Waters offers an update on the story of Christo-Pagans in prisons over at The Wild Hunt.
Here's my contribution to this discussion.
I've been straddling pagan and christian beliefs for some time now. I've learned that there's little more pagan (imo) than the Catholic Church, at least in regards to ritual and traditions. Here's my contribution.
Hi Anima Sola - I couldn't work out which of your posts was your contribution (and your link was broken) - was it this one?
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