Customer Reviews

Goddess Worship, Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

For starters this book was published by a Christian publishing company (Zondervan) and is really for the most part intended for Christians to use to compare Christianity to neopaganism. Since Hawkins and Gomes come from a Christian worldview it makes sense that they don't spent time defending the "validity" of the Christian faith since that is not their intent. The implication that the Christian faith is indeed the "true" faith is something that is "implied" in the text since, once again it was published by Christians for Christians. This is not to say that the book doesn't have value as an "apologetic/evangelism" tool, because it does and is intended for that as well, but from the point of view of the Christian using it not necessarily the neopagan picking it up and reading it.

The thing that Celtic Witch and the other "negative" reviewers have to get over is that Christianity makes an "absolute truth" claim. Christians make that claim, because Christ made the claim about himself in John 14:6. We don't believe that neopaganism is a path to God in whatever shape/form/etc. that people take him/her to be. Another big problem that Christians have with neopaganism is in its use of magick, which is condemned in the Bible. Any kind of occultic worldview whether it be New Age, Satanism, Wiccan, etc. butts heads against Christianity, because of the "truth claims" they make which contradict what Christianity teaches.
Celtic Witch and the group most likely are not going to agree with the "truth claims" of Christianity, but they have to understand that we don't agree with the claims of their neopaganistic beliefs either. I am not a relativist nor do I believe that relativism is really a tenable belief. Therefore I don't believe in this "every path leads to God" nonsense that many people promote. Everyone has a worldview (even if that worldview is that they don't believe in worldviews). How we understand whether one worldview is true over and against another deals with issues of coherence and correspondence to reality and the like. Although this is not the place to discuss this in its entirety I would guide people to Geisler's "Christian Apologetics" book on more information concerning coherence and correspondence. Beware neopagan you won't like what you read!

It seems that Craig Hawkins' book was written for classroom/educational purposes from the format in which it was written. He obviously knows his stuff very well from his own personal Protestant Christian tradition; however, I found his format difficult to read as it keeps the book from flowing. One must first read each heading, then listed neo-pagan claim before Hawkins' countered Protestant Christian rebuttal. The result for me was dry reading in spite of his thorough research and goodly amount of helpful information.

If one doesn't mind this type of format, his book is absolutely full of valuable information. It's great to read both sides of the issue of Goddess worship, neo-paganism, and wicca. However, I personally prefer a flowing prose format which more naturally connects each section of the book. Hawkins' book would be invaluable in a church class/instructional setting for family and friends to gain a better insight and understanding into their loved ones' involvement in Goddess worship, neo-paganism, or witchcraft/wicca.

Neopaganisms are profoundly syncretist beliefs that usually include pantheism, belief in an immanent deity, monism, veneration of female divinity, and respect for the earth around us. Hawkins and Gomes admit that it is difficult to try to proselytise us. Let me be charitable here- at least the authors do not confuse us with satanists. However, most neopagans will not find the biblical exclusivist and closed interpretative community claims to be at all persuasive. They do not realise that charismatic Christians also place an emphasis on spiritual experience, and moreover, the Hart-Devlin debate of the sixties can deal effectively with objections to relativism and pluralism. It all goes something like this- there are a core of consensual foundational moral principles that we can all agree on, but many contemporary biomedical and sexual ethics issues are the subject of keen debate. Many pagans would also argue that Hawkins and Gomes do not do their homework on neopagan ethics. If they did, they would acknowledge that ecological concern and gender dialogue are staple elements of our ethical framework. They might be heartened to find out that many pagans share their concern at suicide as a disruption of immanent divinity and a community of lived faith (see Starhawk, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying). They might be happy to learn that we do venerate some biblical content -the Book of Esther shows the folly of ethnic and religious absolutism, for example. Nice try. However, I suspect few neopagans will actually be converted by this booklet.

As a Christian theologian who teaches in theology and as someone who practices Goddess spirituality, I can attest to the inaccuracy and inappropriateness of the author's depictions of BOTH Christianity AND Goddess Thealogy/Worship. First the author is clearly an evangelical fundamentalist who thinks that only his version of Christianity is the true religion and all others are "pagan." It is gross how he tries to prosthelytize at the end of the book. Secondly, Goddess understandings are rooted in Thealogy not TheOlogy and this is a huge distinction and big mistake to make. Furthermore, thealogy is not to be defined according to patriarchal understandings of Christian theology. This goes to show that the author does not even understand what Goddess thealogy is about as he says so little about it and spends most of the time talking about Christian beliefs instead. Thealogy is a very rich discourse with multiplicity and diversity and this author simply cast it as vague and nonexistent. If you want to really understand Goddess spirituality and not for simply converting them to Christianity (or back to Christianity as they have left it already most likely,) do not read this book. Goddess worshipers have left the monotheistic religions in part for the major arrogance of this Christian who wrote the book. This never should have been published as it is a disgrace to both faiths and ignores the central teachings of Christ just by its very form and content.

My Goddess, what utter tripe! I think that Hawkins failed to think about how ancient pagan holidays were converted into the ones that they are known by today by the church (Easter and Christmas, anyone?).

This is just another book released by closed-minded right-wing Christians to try to show that the Goddess and Her children are evil and "satanic" when these religions and ways of life existed BEFORE Christianity.

This book gives a concise, systematic overview of the major beliefs that can be found in the various neo-pagan groups today, focusing mainly on the Wiccan branch with its monotheistic goddess or duotheistic goddess and god worship.

The book provides a treasure trove of Bible references that reject paganistic beliefs and practices. Their value, however, is limited: only people who believe in the authority of the Bible will be convinced by these passages. They show that it is impossible to be Christian and pagan at the same time.

While some pagans belong to that group, others are decidedly non-Christian, and thus won't be impressed by the plethora of Bible sources assembled by the author Craig Hawkins. There are only few parts of the book that address these people, such as the section about the logical contradiction pagans incur when they claim that all truth is relative. Pagans need to make that claim in order to conclude that different people may believe contradictory articles of faith (as is common among pagans). All such articles are accepted as true. This claim of relativity itself is held by pagans to be absolute, however, causing the contradiction.

I guess for anyone who wants their beliefs reiterated back to them it is a great book. Though for people who like the truth so they can think for themselves will find this book lacking. Please do not read this book if you are actually interested in actually learning about Paganism either for knowledge or interest. I would suggest something that was not made by a Christian or Pagan group but by some non-biased third party.

this book is a needed discussion of the incompatibility of Paganism with Christian faith. It seems obvious, but I noticed that many Christians get confused by the "healing" claims of New Age movements, which are clearly pagan, and as such very dangerous.

A related book well worth reading (which can be found on Amazon) is:Mark Albrecht, Reincarnation: A Christian Critique of a New Age Doctrine (Chicago: InterVarsity Press, 1982, 1987)

I wish John F Macarthur had written on the same subject, given his usual clarity.

may the Lord keep your faith!

This is the typical kind of publication one would expect from right-wing fundamentalist christian publishers like Zondervan. Anytime something threatens the male power-hold of mainstream religion, especially christianity, you see publications of this sort. christianity is a religon cobbled together from all the pagan religions - there is nothing that is unique to christianity.

We can see the results of male-dominated religion in our world today: endless war based on male ego and power grabs, destruction of the environment, denigration of women. Without the guiding and civilizing hand of the Goddess, males have run rampant over the earth, raping it for their own gain.

There is a saying that Hawkins apparently has no knowledge of.

"If you wish to know where the sparrow flies... ask the sparrow."

Most of the mis-information in this book is the same old tired arguements against Wicca and Paganism that have been regurgitated for years by Christians. Most of Hawkin's arguements are meaningless to anyone who is not already a Christian. These arguements are presented as if the precepts of Christianity were proven "truth", and any other religious concepts are therefore false. What Hawkins fails to recognise is that the Christian precepts he uses are not proven, and indeed cannot be shown to be more valid that the religions he decrys, thus his arguements are flawed from the outset. Wiccans , and adherants of any other religion for that matter, can easily recognise this type of fallacy, and so anyone trying to use the "truth" of Christianity to disprove Wicca will be simply dismissed from the outset.

This book is simply a tool to make Christians feel better about themselves, while demonising another religion. If you think you can use this book to "save" your children or friend from Wicca... then you are probably the reason they rejected Christianity in the first place.