Christianity and Paganism 1

Paganism is humanity’s default religiosity. It is often equated with polytheism, but that is an oversimplification. Paganism is not about what is worshipped but about how a thing is worshiped. I prefer to make the following distinction. Christianity’s great commandment is to love God with one’s heart, mind, and strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Paganism involves manipulating a god and making oneself more worthy of that god’s favor than one’s neighbor could be. Christianity understands that our worship and devotion are only acceptable to God because of His love and grace. In and of themselves, our worship and devotion are always wholly inadequate. In this and my next blogposts, I want to consider paganism and how Benedict’s Rule can help us respond to it in our own lives.

It is widely believed that the early monastic movement was a response to an influx of paganism after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire. Adopting Christianity became attractive and maybe even necessary. While there is some truth to this, the allure of the desert called the first monastics a hundred years before Constantine. Furthermore, paganism could not have been introduced to the church under Constantine because it was certainly already present.

I have always been intrigued by the exchange in which the serpent asks Eve if they, “shall not eat of any tree of the garden.” Eve responds, “God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (Gen 3:1-3, NRSV). There is no mention of touching the tree earlier in the Genesis account. Why does Eve include the additional restriction? I think the story gives a subtle yet profound insight into human nature. We add restrictions to the relationship God freely offers us, most probably to show we are worthy of being in relationship with God. And thereby, we show ourselves unworthy. This is pagan religiosity, an ever-present feature of human nature.

Pagan influences in the church are apparent. We have eggs, rabbits, trees, special dates, a mother goddess, elaborate rituals and vestments, etc. These are both materially and spiritually pagan. But the church fathers showed their wisdom in allowing these pagan expressions. As the Jerusalem council decided gentiles did not have to convert to Judaism, so the church fathers did not impose a “Christian culture” on the peoples of the Roman empire. This missiological decision proved enormously fruitful.

Over time the church attempted, with varying success, to guide our pagan impulse toward Christ and a right relationship with God. There has always been an ascetic mentality in the church as well. There have been austerity and iconoclastic movements, rejections of Mariology, calls for simplicity, etc. Less apparently, this ascetic mentality has often also been materially and spiritually pagan: “My austerity makes me more worthy than you of God’s favor.”

Next time, I look to the Rule to see how Benedict seeks to counteract both these pagan impulses.