When I first become a Pagan many years ago, I tried to find theological studies of What It All Meant within our literature.  I found many discussions of rituals, magick, and how Witches were correctives to patriarchy. But beyond some brief (and good) discussions in Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon and the Farrars' The Meaning of Witchcraft,  there was almost nothing on the underlying meaning of a Pagan reality.  As I learned more about the broad Pagan tradition I began exploring literature discussing African Diasporic and Native American Pagan religions. Here to, by monotheistic standards the pickings were remarkably thin.

In Brazil I learned most Pagan literature consisted of spell books and details about rituals.  Among the traditional Crow people in Montana, individuals had different interpretations of their practices’ deeper meaning and of the status of figures like Coyote, but no developed theology.  Within my own coven I learned my coven-mates had different beliefs about who the Gods were. Classical Pagan religious writing was rarely sectarian and the major one that could be so described, The Golden Ass, was more an adventure story than a treatise on the Gods.  Pagan cultures were not particularly peaceful, but I know of no adherents to a Pagan religion waging war on those of another for not worshiping the right Gods. Unlike the monotheisms, unity of belief didn’t seem very important in the Pagan world.

A Facebook friend recently described Joseph Campbell’s account of a Western sociologist interviewing a Shinto priest.  Even after visiting their shrines, witnessing their rites, and considerable study he said “I don’t get the ideology. I don’t get your theology.” After a polite silence the priest replied  “We do not have ideology. We do not have theology. We dance.” 

In the same FB discussion another friend reminded me of Z Budapest’s short essay “The slothwoman as ancient magician." ,Z wrote she is inside every woman who brings through the magic and she doesn't care about talking. She likes “music and dancing and shiny things.”  There is a pattern here very different from monotheistic religions. 

Pagan traditions care deeply about the form and quality of ritual and about how we best relate to deities.  Within our traditions arguments about how best to do these can get very contentious, as with current disputes in some reconstructionist circles about animal sacrifice.  But with regard to the ultimate Big Picture and who gets it right?  Not so much. 

The Pagan preference for singing, dance, and “shiny things” is not a sign of anti-intellectualism. Philosophy began in Pagan cultures but theology never played the role it did in Christian cultures.  For example, Pagan religions do not have sermons as a regular part of their worship, as Christians religions do not make dancing a part of theirs.

The major late Classical Pagan theological text was Sallustius’s On the Gods and the World. It was written primarily in response to Christian attacks, offering a Pagan alternative. Significantly, absent those attacks it would not have been written. 

In The Meaning of Witchcraft in chapter 13 Gerald Gardner described Sallustius’s essay as a general description of what Witches in the coven that initiated him believed.  But they focused little on such issues.  Ritual and magick were more important.

The rise of theology

In Christian times philosophy and experience were subordinated to theology. The world did not teach us about the nature of the Gods, God taught us about the nature of the world. He did so through revelations written down long ago by others. Since then God had been silent on matters of doctrine, so it was up to us to figure out what those old texts meant.

The threat of damnation made getting the message a life or death issue. Our own experiences could be misleading because what might appear a benevolent entity could be a demon in disguise.  Scripture and dogma trumped experience.

Because the Bible has so many apparently contradictory or absurd passages, there was ample room to come to different interpretations all claiming to be infallible. Because their deity was silent as to who was right, in over 2000 years there has been no end to theological arguments.

Today we are rediscovering Pagan religion, but from within a Christian culture shaped by Christian habits of thought. We cannot help but take some of this baggage with us, baggage we need to unlearn.

Like I had, many Pagans bring Christian attitudes wrapped in un- or even anti-Christian packaging. It seems to me one of these attitudes is concern with “getting Paganism theologically right.” I think the current “Polytheists are not the same as Pagans” discussions are examples of applying Christian theological attitudes where they do not fit. On that issue, more later.

Theology’s role in a Pagan world

In my view Pagan theology is more important for communication between Pagans and others than it is within our own community.  The dominant secular view of our world is incompatible with any claim Pagan practice illuminates life’s deeper meanings.  There are no deeper meanings.  The dominant Western Christian view considers the world God’s artifact, without intrinsic value or meaning in itself. At best it’s a “witness” to the Lord’s power.  Neither of these views is compatible with our experience. As in Sallustius’s time today there is a significant place for Pagan theology showing how our experience meshes with a model of the world superior to either traditional Christian or secular modern ones.

But it plays little if any role in what we actually do.

There is no “Pagan religion” in the sense there are Christian religions. There are religions we classify as Pagan, and those we do not. “Pagan” is a philosophical term encompassing many religions.  Whether a religion fits or not rests on standards external to it.  Pagan theology is not an alternative to Christian theology, it is an alternative to a monotheistic theology, assuming there is one.  Being a monotheist says nothing about whether you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, or something else. Being Pagan says nothing about whether you are Wiccan, Asatru, Voudon or something else. (My most developed effort to define Pagan religion is here.) 

As with any classification, describing what makes something “Pagan” can be challenged by arguments for a better description, or that the entire category is meaningless. But how these issues pan out does not affect what Wiccan or Asatru or Voudon practitioners do, or how they think about it. Even the best possible system of classification does not render us better able to conduct a ritual and serve the Gods as defined within a specific tradition, be it British traditional Wicca or Asatru or Voudon.

Consequently, determining what constitutes a “Pagan religion” is of little intrinsic interest within a specific Pagan practice. Our rituals, our community, and our connection with divinities are what is important.  At this level there is no need for theology. 

I am not sure “Gardnerian theology,”  “Voudon Theology,” or “Asatru theology” even makes sense except perhaps as a part of something much bigger.  None of these religions make claims beyond their own circles of practitioners. Their obligations are ones of practice, not thought. They exist within a larger religious world, which is why many Pagans have no difficulty honoring and even engaging in other Pagan religious practices. The precise nature of a deity is not important, our relationship with it is. Our religious experiences often resist being captured by words, and the more important the experiences the more resistant they are. 

In a Pagan religion the structure and order of rituals takes the place of theology.  We learn from those rituals, not from texts.  For this Gardnerian celebrating the Wheel of the Year cycle provides a continual meditation on the nature of the world and of life, including my own.  For me it certainly beats any sermon. The ritual structure of other Pagan religions focuses on other dimensions of how we live with respect to the sacred. This is a major difference separating us from religions rooted in revealed texts.

Because our religions are rooted in a variety of spiritual and ritual experiences, a Pagan theology’s task is making sense of that abundance. (Just as Christianity, being rooted in a text, is based on making sense of that text.)  Pagan theology explores what kind of world is compatible with the breadth of Pagan practice and spiritual experience.  Certain kinds are not, such as a purely secular one or a monotheistic one, and so from a Pagan perspective are targets for criticism. But many other possibilities exist compatible with Pagan experience. We can debate the merits of these alternatives and our arguments will have little if anything to do with what we experience or the structure of our practice.

My book Pagans and Christians described Paganism as a coherent religious outlook with enormous variations within its spacious limits and also among individuals within a Pagan tradition. It addressed many traditional theological issues, such as the nature of evil, because it contrasted us with dominant American Christian views. It did not discuss what NeoPagan traditions were “most correct;” what approaches to ritual were “most Pagan;” or whether the dominant deities were masculine, feminine, both, or neither, except within a specific tradition. Variations in our practices were not problems to be solved but outcomes to be expected. To the degree this was theology it was a theology of permission, and like Sallustius, in this day and age also a theology of defense.

Unlike monotheistic theologies, which are rooted in sacred texts, a Pagan theology resembles a scientific theory. It attempts to find and develop an explanatory pattern compatible with reported experience. The nature of the experience studied is different than in science, but the nature of the task is similar.  This is why unlike monotheistic theologies, there is no inherent clash between ours and science.  Like science, no Pagan theology can ever legitimately claim to have discovered Truth, but only the best explanation so far for Pagan experiences. A Pagan theology is always tentative and always aware it could be getting the story wrong.

One need not be a scientist to live a rich fulfilling and successful life in the world.  One need not read Pagan theology to live a rich, fulfilling, and successful life as a Pagan. 

As Pagans, experiences of ritual and the Gods are sufficient. Theology is extra.