Customer Reviews

The New Polytheism (Revised Edition)

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_The New Polytheism_ is a treasure. It's the kind of book I've been longing to find: an intelligent, scholarly and thought-provoking treatise on polytheistic ways of thinking and creating meaning in the modern world. This is a must-read for modern polytheists and Neo-Pagans who hunger for something more substantial than the all-too-prevalent shallow, academically- and theologically-challenged fluff that seems to permeate Western polytheistic communities these days. I especially appreciated the commentary on the experience of polytheism as at first a frightening loss of center, but then a widening of perspective that challenges, inspires and invigorates as one begins to appreciate the diversity and richness of multiple ways of relating and functioning in many different aspects of life. I would love to be part of a group book study using this book.

Preface -- A Letter by Henry Corbin. Introduction to the Second Edition. One: An Exploded Cultural Sphere: the Death of God and the Rebirth of the Gods. Two: The Golden Ring and the Growing Blackness: Monotheism, Polytheism, and Theologizing. Three: Sleeping Beauties: Theology as Faith Seeking Understanding. Four: Stars, Sparks, and Luminous Fish Eyes: Psychology as Understanding Seeking Life. Five: The New Polytheism Fifty-One Theses and Some notes. Postscript The Laughter of the Gods. Notes. Appendix -- Psychology: Monotheistic or Polytheistic by James Hillman. Index.

In this book David Miller attempts to show the essentially "polytheistic" nature of psychology, culture, and religion. He then proposes a re-visioning of our thinking and speaking in terms of myth and narrative rather than abstract, logical systematizing.

Following in the "archetypal psychology" tradition of James Hillman, this work argues that the traditional psychotherapeutic goal of an integrated whole is monotheistic. We are better served by a psychology of the disparate and multiple. Miller rehearses the traditional Romantic tropes of the "death of God" and the lifeless-ness of abstract thought. In place of God and logic he raises up narrative, image, and feeling.

So far so good--he's god the chariot rolling. But Miller manages to drive it off a cliff. For every charge he makes against "monotheistic" thinking, he commits an instance of it himself, as if to accuse by example. The charge of imperialism he illustrates by claiming that we require the Greek gods and the Greek gods only in this new polytheism. His reason is "simply because, willy-nilly, we are Occidental men and women" (p. 97, italics Miller's). Obviously no Western person ever worshipped anything but the Greek gods! Another charge would be his assault on systematic thinking, which he illustrates by extending his polytheistic theology over "all religions" and "all cultures" (p. 89). For yet another charge, have a look at his call for theologians to treat the Greek religious consciousness with more sophistication and differentiation (p. 96). He illustrates the crime by taking his point of departure not from any polytheist, but from the Christian Reinhold Niebuhr. And he never does ground his work in any polytheist source, preferring to invoke god names in a style suggesting mere word association. He goes on and on with this marvelous hypocrisy. Finally, at the end of the book he nails up, in proper Martin Luther-style, a list of fifty-one theses for what the new polytheism will be. He does not fail to mention any ideal that might attract death-of-god enthusiasts, and gives no indication of how they may be fulfilled or reconciled with each other. Indeed, his antagonism against systems indicates they will not be reconciled.

This is the kind of book that makes you want to say to its author: "There may be some truth hidden in what you are saying. But you yourself, sir, are a dork."

Nor should it be surprising that a few gems lie hidden here. Fire a shotgun in the general direction of a target, and you are bound to hit something. So finally, before putting this tantrumming toddler of a book to bed, let's have a look at those few gems. Nevermind their context, for Miller would not have us thinking systematically about them! Here are a number of interesting excerpts, in no particular order and without explanation (much like his theses):

"We do not behave the Gods; rather, their behaviors are our senses, our meanings." (p. 16)

"We are the playground of a veritable theater full of Gods and Goddesses." (p. 73)

"The Gods grab us, and we play out their stories." (p. 76)

"By calling for an impersonal dimension in our psychology, Hillman reaches below or beyond the merely personal and discovers that the Gods and Goddesses are worlds of being and meaning in which my personal life participates." (p. 77)

"Perhaps if we are patient enough, if we listen closely enough to the moods, emotions, unusual behaviors, dreams, and fantasies of ourselves and our societies, we may hear some songs that are very old, now coming once again from the severed head of Orpheus that floats in every sea just off every isle of Lesbos." (p. 99)

David Miller's The New Polytheism was released in 1974 and reprinted in 1981 with a preface clarifying certain points. It created some initial excitement, and is still commented on in many current works of polytheistic interest such as John Michael Greer's A World Full of Gods: An Inquiry into Polytheism or Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America.

The book features a prefatory letter by Henry Corbin and an essay by James Hillman.

It is a pity that this quartet of David Miller's books: The New Polytheism, Christs, Three Faces of God and Hells and Holy Ghosts are out of print. They are simply brilliant examples of Archetypal Psychology's eye (that is, a polytheistic, mythopoeic, psyche-logical eye) turned on the beliefs of a montheistic faith. Not possible you think ? It is absolutely necessary I think, necessary to turn the two Doctors of the Soul (Jung and Hillman's) eyes on a faith whose soul has been long missing. For those Christians who have experienced the polytheism of their own soul and are seeking to integrate this experience into their faith these books are tailor made. I don't know of any other books that have attempted to do what David Miller has done. His accessible style in explaining complex notions is at least equal to that of Thomas Moore (of Care of the Soul fame).

I first discovered this book 12 years ago, while writing a formal credo for a religion class in college, and I found the book invaluable. I had to fight the urge to quote whole pages at a time. Not only did Mr. Miller explain the complexities of a polytheist-centered world-view clearly, but he did so with a poet's light touch. The only regret I had at the time, and have now, is that I was reading the book with a deadline hanging over my head, and could not luxuriate in his writing as much as I wanted (it is only this fact that makes me uncomfortable giving the book a perfect "5 star" rating).

It is a great sorrow that this book is out of print... But perhaps it will be reissued one day.