From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Pegasus)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: REVIEW- _Pagans and Christians_
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:24:03 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon, Architecture

<Posted for Pegasus by Jay Brandt>

Fox, Robin Lane  .Pagans and Christians.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knoph
1987 (BR/128/.R7L36/1986)

     Robin Lane Fox, has written a book that should be read by everyone who
calls themselves Pagan.  This book is about the time period known as the
late Roman Empire, with a very sympathetic view of the pagans that lived
then.  He does not go in for "Pagan Bashing," this has been the practice of
many historians.  In  showing that the new ideas of the Christians were not
so new, that most of them were at lest one hundred years old if not older. 
He points out that the "US" vs. "THEM" mentality that was so effectively
used by the Christian fathers.  That words hairesis (heresy), and the Latin
religo (religion) and superstitio (superstition) had very different
meanings to the pagan hearer of that day.  Heresy was a school of thought,
with no comment on its goodness or badness.  Religion was positive
experience as opposed to superstition the negative overt fear of the God(s)
or what may be termed today theophobia.  He points out that we can thank
the Christians for such words as Pagan, Heathen and Judaism.
     He shows that if you can control, what is known about a people, you
can control the truth about who, and what those people really are.  If this
kind of mind/thought control had not been practiced such questions about
the roll the horned alters found in the oil pressing rooms in the
Philistine city of Ekron in  the modern state of  Israel (1987) would not
have come up, because these horned alters were in some way caught up in a
royal/temple monopoly, because to these people their Queen/High Priestess,
with the aid of lesser priestess ran the oil business.  But because of the
hatred for women in any position of power these civilizations were thought
of as uncivilized.
     This book I hope will be the first in a long list of books written by
people who are sympathetic to the Pagans, or Pagans themselves in the
Academic world.  Where were those Pagans who were Anthropologists,
Sociologists, Archaeologists, and Philosophers when Dr. Margeret Murry's
ground braking books "God of the Witches" and " The Witchcult in Western
Europe " was being discredited.  Where are they now to write the books,
articles, and monographs, to change the academic view of who we are, where
we came from, and where we are going in the future.  Not theories
masquerading as facts, but with solid facts and research to back them up. 
The introductory courses of Anthropology taught in colleges and
universities today define Witchcraft as the practice of evil sorcery and
magic, and these are the people that will study Folk/Pagan cultures.
     If we are to survive, we must support other Pagans in this world who
are losing their cultures to the inroads of Western "Christian"
Civilization.  Where are the Nayar of northern India who's culture is one
of the last Matriarchies, that until quite recently could be described in
terms that were used to describe the classic Amazon cultures.  Where are
the anthropologists to help them to survive.  We who are of European
extraction who have for the most part lost our culture and civilization
during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  If we are to hang on to what
precious little is left, we must learn all we can about the other
Folk/Pagan cultures and support them where we can so that the Folk/Pagan
ways that are vanishing so quickly from the face of the earth can remain
for the next generation to come.  I can only hope that the book "Pagans and
Christians" can give us an insight into what the Pagans of the Greco-Roman
world was really like and inspire us to try to hold on to the little of
what is left of Paganism world.

Pegasus