Customer Reviews

Pagan Pathways, New Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't tell you how refreshing it was to come across this book - there is such a lack of scholarly writing on modern paganism! This anthology grew out of a conference bringing together both academics studying neopaganism and magic, and practitioners, and has an excellent balance of both in-depth scholarly analysis and an insider perspective - or several considering the diversity of the contributors.

I know it will probably draw the ire of those who expect all pagan books to be dumbed down to a remedial-reading level - and it appears it already has, looking at at least one of the reviews already submitted - but for educated and literate pagans, works like this are a godsend, and I hope to see many more of them in the future.

At the time this book was published in 1996, Graham Harvey and Charlotte Hardman were both lecturers in religious studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Graham Harvey has also written Contemporary Paganism: Listening People, Speaking Earth and Animism: Respecting the Living World, and Charlotte Hardman has also written Other Worlds: Notions of Self and Emotion among the Lohorung Rai (Explorations in Anthropology).

Here are some quotations from the book:

"A Pagan religion has three characteristics. It is polytheistic, recognizing a plurality of divine beings... It sees the material world and its laws ... as a theophany, a manifestation of divinity... Finally, Pagan religions recognize the female face of divinity, called by modern Pagans the Goddess." (Pg. 34)
"Some modern Pagans even call their way the path of 'individually experienced religion.'" (Pg. 37)
"...most modern Pagans claim Celtic origins for their tradition..." (Pg. 49)
"Some other Heathen groups have expressed concern (and considerable opposition) to Edred Thorsson (at least partly) because of his status as a leading member of the Temple of Set, a 'Satanist' organization." (Pg. 58)
"The role of women is important in all modern Pagan traditions. Women are usually seen as essential in the priesthood." (Pg. 84)
"Paganism is not so much a set of beliefs as a way of relating to the world." (Pg. 153)
"Pagans tend to associate New Age with the marketing of spirituality but there is undoubtedly a commodification angle to the current pagan Celtic scene." (Pg. 249)

The first thing you need to know is that this is a re-release of "Paganism Today", by Charlotte Hardman and Graham Harvey, that was originally released in 1996. (the copyright says 1995 but Graham Harvey refers to it in his Bibliogaphy as 1996) That is what they mean by "new edition". This is the second time I have stumbled across a book that has been re-released with a different title and no revisions. Watch out for this problem with other titles by favorite authors. It may be related to changes in the tax laws for publishers.

The second thing you need to know is that this is a collection of scholarly articles by scholars for scholars. Graham Harvey is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at King Alfred College, England. In America we would call him a Professor. This book was written at the college level not the 6th grade level of most popular books.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in studying Paganism at the college level.

Oh no! Why did I buy this? So miserably written I couldn't manage to get through the second chapter. I put it down forever. I'm so sure there's information in this book, but I couldn't decode the language it was written in. Is this English? Miserable. Wordiness out the wazoo. Do people really talk like this? So incredibly verbose that you swear these people just like to prove they can use "big words" and as a bonus, hear themselves talk. I only gave it 2 stars because there could be information in it that I just couldn't get to.