{"id":6667,"date":"2014-08-05T16:19:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T22:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6667"},"modified":"2014-08-05T19:40:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T01:40:23","slug":"assessing-margot-adler-and-moving-toward-a-polytheistic-philosophy-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6667","title":{"rendered":"Assessing Margot Adler and Moving Toward a Polytheistic Philosophy of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00b6\u00a0 Link to National Public Radio audio (14 minutes) of Ronald Hutton and Phyllis Curott talking about Margot Adler’s influence on contemporary Paganism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The presenter rather made it sound as though we Pagans were all in the wilderness (no elders?!) until Margot brought us out, but then, as you pointed out in milder language, one thing that Margot did was make Wicca, etc., a bit more respectable to the chattering classes of the Northeast by being something that they recognized: a politically pink, secular-seeming Jewish intellectual, descendent of a famous psychoanalyst, thus easily penetrating their particular bulwarks of snobbery \u2014\u00a0not someone from Flyover Country or the wrong sort of foreigner.<\/p>\n

Drawing Down the Moon <\/em>was the third or fourth “I go among the witches” book of the era, following on Hans Holzer’s The New Pagans<\/em>, Susan Roberts’ Witches USA<\/em>, etc. and hitting some of the same locales, but it was far, far better and deeper, and I agree that it did give contemporary Paganism a bit of intellectual ballast.<\/p>\n

\u00b6 A philosophy professor from India talks about how beginning with Hinduism instead of one of the desert monotheisms changes how we discuss the philosophy of religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taking Christianity as the exemplar of religion skews philosophical discussion towards attempts to solve, resolve or dissolve difficult philosophical puzzles inherent in monotheism: problems about God\u2019s powers, goodness and knowledge; attempts to provide rational arguments for God\u2019s existence; the problem of evil; and so on. Hindu philosophers have traditionally been far more interested in a quite different array of problems, especially questions about the nature of religious knowledge and religious language, initially arising from their concerns with the Veda as a sacred eternal text and as a source of ritual and moral law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00b6 What about a polytheistic<\/em> philosophy of religion? Using ancient Greek materials, Edward Butler offers Essays on a Polytheistic Philosophy of Religion<\/em><\/a> (parts of which previously appeared in The Pomegranate<\/em><\/a>, I am happy to say).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00b6\u00a0 Link to National Public Radio audio (14 minutes) of Ronald Hutton and Phyllis Curott talking about Margot Adler’s influence on contemporary Paganism. The presenter rather made it sound as though we Pagans were all in the wilderness (no elders?!) until Margot brought us out, but then, as you pointed out in milder language, one […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[5,90,40,4],"class_list":["post-6667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-paganism","tag-philosophy","tag-polytheism","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1Jx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":685,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=685","url_meta":{"origin":6667,"position":0},"title":"Margot Adler Speaks on Paganism Today","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Margot Adler's talk from the recent Unitarian Universalist General Assembly is summarized here, together with video links.Jason Pitzl-Waters has more commentary. Here's mine:Adler, who became interested in paganism, and in particular, Wicca, during the sixties, remembers that in those days paganism was a coven-based movement. You had to join a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8123,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8123","url_meta":{"origin":6667,"position":1},"title":"“Witches of America”: Sitting at the Cool Kids’ Table","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally read Alex Mar's Witches of America, and it is better than I thought, based on some of the reviews that I had seen, like this piece of negativity, for example: \"[a] sordidly pornographic and self-aggrandising narrative\" or this one: \"extremely judgmental,\" or the Complete Hurt Feelings Wrap-up here.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0374291373","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4380,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4380","url_meta":{"origin":6667,"position":2},"title":"Ten Pagan Authors Interviewed","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The editors of The Wiccan\/Pagan Times have taken ten interviews with contemporary Pagan authors and published them in ebook and paperback format. Presented here are some of the\u00a0many memorable interviews we have published over the last 13 years. We have taken 10 of these interviews and put them together with\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":6631,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6631","url_meta":{"origin":6667,"position":3},"title":"Passing of Margot Adler\u2014Will NPR Admit She was Wiccan?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you not on Facebook, this was the announcement of Margot Adler's passing, posted by her son, Alex. Old friends, long time fans, today at 4am Margot breathed easily for the first time in two weeks. Later today, at 10:30am she was pronounced deceased. Her condition had been\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":10948,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10948","url_meta":{"origin":6667,"position":4},"title":"Margot Adler’s Old Radio Station Shuts Down","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Well-known Pagan writer Margot Adler worked for National Public Radio, but she also had a presence at\u00a0 Pacifica's WBAI in New York City, where she hosted a talk show called \"Hour of the Wolf.\" The show continued after her death, but no more: WBAI has shut down. Apparently the \"listener-supported\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"journalism\"","block_context":{"text":"journalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/margot-adler.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1494","url_meta":{"origin":6667,"position":5},"title":"Margot Adler’s Vampire Reading List","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan journalist Margot Adler offers an NPR piece on \"do-good vampires\" along with a book list. She tells me that she has now read eighty-nine contemporary vampire books, as of this week. I am waiting for the definitive review essay.","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6667","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=6667"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6673,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6667\/revisions\/6673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}