Christopher Lyons makes his arguments for a robust pagan West throwing off the yoke of Christianity, a theme Richard had recently made mention of. I’ll try here for a gracious response.
It’s worth starting on a point of agreement. Much of Western Christianity, especially mainstream Protestantism, has indeed been reduced to mere sentimentalism and politically correct social work. This, however, has nothing to do with the essence of the faith; it is a falling away from faith in a new, distorted and spiritless form amenable to modernity. It is a logical consequence of the separation from tradition, authority and doctrine. Modern civilization itself is rooted in Gnostic heresies that arose first within the Church and later wholly outside it, leading to the cultural triumph of secularism.
Regarding the “ascetic slave morality that characterized Christianity’s origins”, Lyons would not allow for a rejection of this world and its works. This quintessentially pagan embrace of the fallen world, a love of fate (Nietzsche’s amor fati) derives from indifference, if not hostility, to supernatural truth. Yet we must face what we can apprehend of the beginning and the end of things—granted by divine revelation to the human heart. There is an answer to the question, “Why?” and Truth is attainable. Asceticism, derided as “salvation through death,” is actually the highest form of struggle and ascendance to higher existence.
Contrary to the author James Russell’s assertion that Christianity was transformed by its encounter with Europe, the faith was the providential crowning of its peoples’ historical development. The external character of the religion changed in certain ways, but the purity of Christ’s message was successfully transmitted. The gift of the Gospel to the Indo-European tribes was more ennobling than those who echo Zarathustra’s cry of “only the earth!” could ever fathom. As Dostoevsky stated, if there is no immortality, no life or love after death, everything is permitted. Not only that; everything is absurd. The rise of Christianity on the continent brought Europeans into communion with Truth, meaning and order.
The aesthetics and ethos of the classical and Nordic pagan cultures had a vitality absent from the mechanization and mediocrity of contemporary civilization. In the ways of our pagan ancestors there was a measure of wisdom that nonetheless falls far short of the fullness of Truth and Love bestowed by the Galilean so despised and ridiculed by the world. Men now choose or reject salvation in freedom.
The stoicism of the ancients and their sense of life’s tragedy were admirable, but ultimately futile. For all the talk of life-affirmation and vigor, a revival of paganism offers only spiritual death. Christ’s entry into the world changed everything- the “pauper” is Pantokrator, and every knee shall bend before Him.
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The “Pauper” is Pantokrator
Christopher Lyons makes his arguments for a robust pagan West throwing off the yoke of Christianity, a theme Richard had recently made mention of. I’ll try here for a gracious response. … [Read More]
Posted by Mark Hackard on October 06, 2009
The Usual Suspects