ChristoPaganism: An Inclusive Path

by Joyce Higginbotham, River Higginbotham

Have you ever questioned the nature of religion? Would you like to explore more inclusive modes of spirituality? You are not alone. In this exciting age of religious diversity, more and more Pagans and Christians are incorporating each other's practices into their own belief systems. These intrepid believers are forging hybrid spiritual paths that borrow from both earth- and scripture-based religions, daring to defy the status quo of spirituality. Everything you once knew about religion is about to change. Noted scholars Joyce and River Higginbotham invite you to participate in the fascinating dialogue surrounding the nature of faith and the evolving spiritual needs of our world. With balance and depth, the authors delve into the origins, ideologies, and common threads of Christianity and Paganism. This powerful book culminates in a series of compelling interviews with fifteen individuals who share ways in which they honor a unique blend of traditions, helping you to create your own rich and rewarding spiritual path. Get ready to re-examine your beliefs and view spiritual practice in a new light. By reading this book on Christianity and Pagan ritual and opening the door to interspiritual experience, you will reach a deeper understanding of yourself―and cultivate a profound appreciation for the changing landscape of spirituality around you.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Paganism, Christianity, Nonfiction, Magick, Reference

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

Reviews

[Christy Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you see the title and say "Oh? How can these two religions ever co-exist, let alone be co-worshiped?" Then buy the book. If you actually know anything about Christianity, Paganism, and have common sense you won't need to bother. It was interesting at times but a little long winded and obvious.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really uneven. Parts of it are AWESOME and parts are meh. It also needs better proofreading.

To my surprise, the parts I liked the best were the parts on Christianity. Let's face it, the Higginbothams aren't historians and I didn't buy a couple of their conclusions, but the information on which books of the Bible were written when, the historicity (or not) of Jesus, comparing Christianity to Mystery Cults of the classical era, and the rise of monotheism were the parts of the book that were the most AWESOME. I had never been exposed to this material before despite being raised Christian, and found it fascinating. I will say, however, that the chapter on Mystery Religions opens with some really annoying over-hyping. Not shocked to my bones over here, really, especially since I have a lot more sympathy for syncretic Christianity (or, as I've jokingly put it, "Christianity: The religion that hangs out in dark alleys and mugs other religions for their spare bits of dogma") than for modern fundamentalism.

All of which said, I continue to think that I'm not going to find a spirituality that fits in an off-the-shelf box. But this book makes me want to read more about the history of Christianity, especially the authorship of the Bible. Not the reaction I expected to have.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. After studying Christianity, I discovered ChristoPaganism and was immediately fascinated. This book ties together the history of both Christianity and Paganism and how the two religions wrap together and fit very well. It goes into how Christianity is based in Paganism and the roots of the religion. I would recommend this to any fellow religious study students and also to anyone of both faiths. There is a lot of hatred between Christians and Pagans today and I think people should read this book to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the two.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I figure, you know authors are good when they write a book on a topic that you don't care about and you read the book anyway because they wrote it and you trust they'll find a way to make the topic interesting somehow. I'm happy to say that my hopes were well-founded and that the book was much more thought-provoking than I expected.

The book's title is a bit misleading. Most of the book isn't about a single path called "ChristoPaganism," but talks about Paganism and Christianity as two separate religions. The authors focus more on Christianity than Paganism for the first two-thirds of the book, probably because their audience is primarily Pagan and because they already discussed many of the Pagan aspects in their earlier books. ChristoPaganism is divided into three parts. The first part covers the basic beliefs of Paganism and Christianity along with a historical overview of both religions. For Christianity, the authors summarize the findings both of scholars who believe Jesus really existed as a historical person and those who don't. In the second part, the authors examine how practitioners of Paganism and Christianity experience their religions. Here they tie ChristoPaganism to their previous book, Pagan Spirituality: A Guide to Personal Transformation. In both of these books, the authors use a model called Spiral Dynamics as well as the works of Ken Wilbur and other scholars to examine how people learn to look at faith and religion from broader perspectives.

The third part of the book best fits the book's title. The Higginbothams interview fifteen people who practice both Paganism and Christianity, sometimes blending them, sometimes keeping them separate. Unfortunately, this part fell flat for me. Despite the authors' best efforts to describe the participants, they all ran together, like badly-delineated characters in a novel. I found myself wishing they had just transcribed the interviews in script-format rather than write them out as prose, because their efforts to find new ways to say "Michael says" became distracting ("Michael comments," "Michael observes," "Michael notes," "Michael states," "Michael answers," etc.). I was planning to give the book five stars, but this section is almost half the book and not up to that standard. Overall, though, I happily recommend the book for people interested in interspirituality, blending religions, or just seeing Christianity from a different perspective.

[Josh Fisher]

Was actually pretty surprised by the chapters on biblical scholarship and integral theory, much of which I could've written myself. The focus group at the end I could've done without, but otherwise I really appreciated this. I really do think the so-called greening of Christianity is one of our best available avenues for saving humanity. Was in a webinar recently with someone from the UK who said this is really taking off among millennials there.

Especially liked this part, which doesn't get said enough in spiritual circles:

"All the concepts of monotheism added together do not amount to the reality of God. It is possible that all the concepts of monotheism added together tell us more about the people who formulated them than about God. What monotheism does offer is a collection of beliefs about the divine, not the divine itself... Perhaps the greatest stumbling block facing interspirituality is this tendency to confuse ideas about the divine with the divine. This tendency puts these ideas beyond the reach of discussion since the ideas become venerated as the divine itself."

[Tranquillity · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very good book and great to see how the two can be mixed together and made to work for those who do so.

[Michelle Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to see the similarities some parts you couldn't put it down other parts your mind started going blah blah blah. Overall worth the read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book describing how you can incorporate elements of pagan religions into Christianity and vise versa without sacrificing your core beliefs. It's amazing to see them blended because Christianity didn't come to destroy cultural beliefs, but to baptize them.

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of this book is a well written study in blowing apart so many incorrect assumptions of dogmatic Christians. There was so much learned from this part that I am grateful for reading it.
The second part is a very heady psychological/philosophical section that I'm not sure I gleaned much from.
The third part saved the book as it is basically a transcription of several conversations with people of differing spiritual paths.
Educational and reaffirming, this book is invaluable to an eclectic religious man like myself.

[Lauren Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrific section on the intersection of the Mystery cults and Christianity and good exploration of the mythic roots of Judeo-Christian texts. I suggest reading those, if you're interested, and skipping the rest. Better to read Ken Wilbur than read someone else's summary of his work.

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looks like I'm the first person on Goodreads to add/read this book!