Pagans are pantheists
From Beth White Sir: Digby Anderson's review of Alister McGrath's examination of atheism (Books, 9 October) was superb. While I agree that what is prevalent in this postmodern jumble of a world is not so much Christianity anymore but 'paganism infused with a few sentimental Christian strands', I must object to his use of the term 'paganism' on two accounts. Firstly, in the above sentence he appears, as so many do, to confuse true Paganism with the spiritual eclectism of our modern world. Someone who is not a Christian is not by a process of elimination a 'Pagan'. We are long past the delineation of Christian town versus countryside paganus, by about 17 centuries. Paganism is a specific polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion, which incorporates beliefs and ritual practices from ancient traditions.
Secondly, when he does go on to speak of modern Pagans and their possible unhappiness with 'our reverence for the idol of "diversity", he refers to them in Hammer Horror terms. They arc not involved in child sacrifice or any of the other stereotypical crimes they have been accused off since coming out of the broom closet in the 1970s. Paganism is also about recognising that nature is the Divine and therefore sacred, and that the Divine must Contain within it all possibilities of nature, and that diversity in religion is evolutionarily necessary. That is the real reason why Christianity and other religions are becoming de-traditionalised (or in some cases, more fundamental) — because change is the only way that they will survive in the face of atheism and other factors.
Beth White
London W5
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