People who think that a “real religion” has holy books often do not understand Paganism, whether old or now. <\/p>\n
Gus diZerega, who is now blogging at BeliefNet, takes on that attitude in his latest post, “A Pagan View on Sacred Authority<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Fundamentally we are an oral and experiential tradition. We Wiccans have Books of Shadows, but they are more like ritual cookbooks that sacred texts along Biblical or even theological lines. Similar texts dominate in Brazil among the African Diasporic traditions. Dogma is not particularly important, compared to ritual and experience. This also appears to have been the case in [ancient] Rome. <\/em><\/p>\n Read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Incidentally, it is good to see that BeliefNet has a Pagan blogger again. It used to be me, but I was purged along with other non-monotheists<\/a>. Now the site’s owners seem to be trying to broaden its blogroll<\/a> once again. You still have to scroll to the very very bottom to find the Pagan blogger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People who think that a “real religion” has holy books often do not understand Paganism, whether old or now. Gus diZerega, who is now blogging at BeliefNet, takes on that attitude in his latest post, “A Pagan View on Sacred Authority.” Fundamentally we are an oral and experiential tradition. We Wiccans have Books of Shadows, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3,5],"class_list":["post-1119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-blogging","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-i3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":850,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=850","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":0},"title":"Gallimaufry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Here in Colorado, Rocky Mountain PBS' group of stations weights their offerings heavily toward programs like Lawrence Welk and Antiques Roadshow. When they really want to be cutting edge, such as during fund drives, they run a John Denver special.Having once been peripherally connected with the antiques trade, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":851,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=851","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":1},"title":"Saying the Pagan Rosary","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagans and the rosary: religion journalist Kimberly Winston examines a spiritual practice and some Pagan material culture.Fuensanta Plaza, a follower of the Norse gods who lives in Carmel, Calif., says if her house caught fire, the only thing she would run back for would be her pagan prayer beads, dedicated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":803,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=803","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":2},"title":"Gallimaufry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 A federal judge won't let the Veterans Administration wriggle out of the lawsuit over grave markers for Wiccan veterans.\u2022 The Guardian, a British newspaper, covers the Greek Pagan renaissance.For years, Orthodox clerics believed that they had defeated Greeks wishing to embrace the customs and beliefs of the ancient past.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1154,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1154","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":3},"title":"Patheos’ Pagan Gateway","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have had the privilege of helping to create the \"Pagan gateway\" on Patheos.com, a new interfaith religious portal site designed to help people find \" credible, comprehensive, easily accessible information on religion and spirituality.\"Founders Leo and Cathie Brunnick are trying to create a site that is comprehensive, academically sound,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1314,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1314","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":4},"title":"A Christian Minister Says the Right Things (Mostly)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The US Air Force Academy's official site for Pagan ritual has received a lot of attention. I first mentioned it on January 27 when I saw the Air Force news release.In faraway Virginia*, Eugence C. Buie, a retired Disciples of Christ minister, wrote an op-ed piece criticizing his local newspaper's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8262,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8262","url_meta":{"origin":1119,"position":5},"title":"Call for Papers: Family, Home, and Ways of Life: Living Paganisms in a Globalized World","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Information on the upcoming Family, Home, and Ways of Life: Living Paganisms in a Globalized World conference in Krakow, Poland, 24-25 March 2017, may be found at this link. Presentations may address various issues within the following (suggested) topics: Everyday life of contemporary Pagans Understanding human relationships: from till death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}