{"id":1271,"date":"2009-12-21T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2009-12-21T17:40:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T17:40:00","slug":"our-open-source-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1271","title":{"rendered":"Our ‘Open-Source’ Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paganism as an open-source religion<\/a>. (That approach works for some Jews too.)<\/p>\n

Douglas Cowen, in his book <\/em>Cyberhenge<\/a>, goes even further, making an explicit analogy to computer coding: \u201cPagans are \u2018hacking\u2019 their own religious traditions out of the \u2018source codes\u2019 provided by pantheons, faith practices, liturgies, rituals, and divinatory practices drawn from a variety of cultures worldwide.\u201d Given all that \u201chacking,\u201d it\u2019s no wonder that, as Webster says, \u201cThere are a huge number of pagan people in the high-tech space.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Hat tip: Gus diZerega.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paganism as an open-source religion. (That approach works for some Jews too.) Douglas Cowen, in his book Cyberhenge, goes even further, making an explicit analogy to computer coding: \u201cPagans are \u2018hacking\u2019 their own religious traditions out of the \u2018source codes\u2019 provided by pantheons, faith practices, liturgies, rituals, and divinatory practices drawn from a variety of […]<\/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":[5],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-kv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12142,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12142","url_meta":{"origin":1271,"position":0},"title":"Great Review for Calico’s “Being Viking”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I was happy to see Being Vking: Heathenism in Contemporary America get a good review in Reading Religion, which is the American Academy of Religion's online book-review site. Michael Strmiska (currently teaching in Latvia) writes, Being Viking deserves great praise and wide readership as an extremely detailed and well-researched historical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/viking-200x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6297,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6297","url_meta":{"origin":1271,"position":1},"title":"Cross-Cultural Collection on Popular Religion Includes Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The edited collection Religion, Tradition and the Popular examines \"experiences of spirituality in combination with commercialization and expressive performative practices as well as everyday politics of identity. Based on innovative theoretical reflections, the essays take into consideration what the transcultural negotiation of religion, tradition and the popular signifies in different\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.transcript-verlag.de\/media\/image\/thumbnail\/9783837626131_720x720.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5853,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5853","url_meta":{"origin":1271,"position":2},"title":"Defining Paganism (2)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Previous: \"Defining Paganism (1)\" and \"Defining Paganism (1.5)\" The first definition that I offered was created by a scholar of religion, Michael York. It facilitates the ability to talk about Paganism not as a set of doctrines, but as a way of being religious. In an essay that he published\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":1101,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1101","url_meta":{"origin":1271,"position":3},"title":"A New 3-Volume Work in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Barbara Jane Davy, author of Introduction to Pagan Studies (The Pagan Studies Series) has a new edited collection out of source documents for Pagan studies.Paganism (Critical Concepts in Religious Studies) lists on Amazon at an \"institutional\" price, like the other edited collection that I recently mentioned.From the publisher's site:This new\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":13245,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13245","url_meta":{"origin":1271,"position":4},"title":"A New Survey on Pagans’ Political Attitudes","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This survey, \"Pagan and Heathen Political and Sociall Metrics,\"\u00a0 comes recommended by several scholars whom I know. It is for respondents in the United States and Canada only. This survey is a means of gathering information about beliefs, behaviors, and demographics from Heathens and Pagans in the United States and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2371,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2371","url_meta":{"origin":1271,"position":5},"title":"Seeking AAR Pagan Studies Papers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After reading the Call for Papers, now is the time to submit proposals for the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group's sessions at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting. We have two topics this year: What does Pagan studies offer to academic analysis and critique? How do historical constructions of \u201cpaganism\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","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=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}