On Being a Pagan (Paperback)

~ Alain de Benoist (Author) "For those who share Nietzsche's belief that the conversion of Europe to Christianity and the more or less complete integration of the European mind into..." (more)
Key Phrases: Completely Other, Erich Fromm, Saint Paul (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In this small masterpiece, the great French thinker Alain de Benoist claims that only the pagan deities of ancient Europe offer a spiritual recourse to the present religious malaise. The guilt, the fear, the narrow petty-bourgeois obsession with well-being, and the self-loathing love of the Other that has left Western man defenseless before the destructive behaviors of our nihilist age derive from the alien belief system that Christianity introduced to the West. They are not part of the pagan spirit that lives still in the Rig Veda, the Iliad, or the Edda. Benoist helps us rediscover these ancient wellsprings and the fonts from which future greatnesses may again flow. But let the reader be warned, his On Being a Pagan proposes no folkloric or New Age "return to the past," but rather a Nietzschean recurrence in which the future bears all the promise of our distant origins—and thus of another great beginning.

—Michael O’Meara, author of New Culture, New Right (First Books, 2004)

About the Author

Alain de Benoist was born on 11 December 1943. He is married and has two children. He has studied law, philosophy, sociology, and the history of religions in Paris, France. A journalist and a writer, he is the editor of two journals: Nouvelle Ecole (since 1968) and Krisis (since 1988). His main fields of interest include the history of ideas, political philosophy, classical philosophy, and archaeology. He has published more than 50 books and 3000 articles. He is also a regular contributor to many French and European publications, journals, and papers (including Valeurs actuelles, Le Spectacle du monde, Magazine-Hebdo, Le Figaro-Magazine in France, Telos in the United States, and Junge Freiheit in Germany). In 1978 he received the Grand Prix de l’Essai from the Académie Française for his book Vu de droite: Anthologie critique des idées contemporaines (Copernic, 1977). He has also been a regular contributor to the radio program France-Culture and has appeared in numerous television debates.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ultra (January 1, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0972029222
• ISBN-13: 978-0972029223
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #385,982 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Of The Year, April 3, 2005

By	Kevin S. Schemerholtz (Sunny Oakland, California) - See all my reviews

This dense, extremely erudite, and well researched book brings the European New Right's finest and most challenging ideas together and points them in a new direction. If you like Spengler, Heidegger, Evola, and Nietzsche, and want to see how they still have a great deal of impact - then look no further. This superb text is an example of the very highest in contemporary writing and thinking about religion, culture, and politics.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleased, February 2, 2006

By	Edward R. Clark (Baton Rouge, LA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As one used to Julian and Sallust, I always searched for a pagan philosopher who could take the thought of the ancient world into the modern, and joust with the predominant Judeo-Christian gestalt. Benoist is the man for this. His arguments in favor of a pagan world view are a welcome antidote, and have a high seriousness sadly missing elsewhere.

As an instructor of Classical thought, I was specifically looking for a work that would take that thought into the modern world. This work answered that need.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Return of the Pagan, November 26, 2006

By	Melchi "spiritus93" (Ottawa, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

Don't be fooled by the goofy wizard on the cover of this fantastic book: it's definitely not a Llewellyn book and it's certainly not for the fluff bunnies, monkeys or fairies (although these strange creatures could benefit immensely from studying it's content between naked romps around the fire pit!).

Alain de Benoist delves deeply into the metaphysics of Judeo-Christianity and ancient paganism, analyzing what differentiates them in philosophical terms by expounding his research and thinking on such themes as space & time, monotheism & polytheism and good & evil. He explores Nietzschean ideas like nihilism & will to power and proposes that a return to paganism in a renewed form is the solution to rid our culture of the rotting corpse of a God who's stagnant moralistic taint has infiltrated our society's secular institutions. de Benoist makes a compelling case when he examines how these defunct values influence everyday things such as politics, wars, sexual mores and an obsession with safety and well-being.

This book sheds cleansing light in dark places, lifts old stones and reveals the insects that scurry and hide! A must read for any self-respecting pagan who is looking for more than fantasies, parties and hugs from their path.