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I read with great interest Paul Greve’s article, “Non-Christians’ salvation is in God’s hands, not book” (Sept. 20). As one of the non-Christians in question, I hope a non-Christian perspective might be welcome.
A little background: I am a Pagan. Paganism is not easily defined: For Pierre Chuvin, Pagans are “people of the place,” practitioners of ethnic religion, and Paganism itself was a “mosaic of established traditions.” Likewise, Ramsay MacMullen refers to the “spongy mass of tolerance and tradition” that was ancient Paganism.
Both statements are accurate when referring to modern Paganism, for these diverse ethnic beliefs remain with us today.
Wicca, the most widely known form of Paganism, encompasses many traditions. But there are also Hellenes, Romans, Kemetics, Norse and Germanic Heathens (often referred to as “satr”), Druids, and others; all of us follow, in one form or another, the customs and traditions of our ancestors.
There are not many of us by the standards of the “great” religions, but I like to think that we have some small voice in ideas about what happens to us after death.
Christians focus on the afterlife, while Pagans have had their eyes set on the here and now. For a Christian, this life is only preparation for another. It is unsurprising, then, that they should focus on questions relating to the afterlife, but Christians often forget that this kind of discourse is meaningless to non-Christians.
The “premise that salvation is through Christ alone” is a statement laden with value judgments and rests upon the presupposition that there is but one God and that this one God has a plan for all humankind.
Pagans have a different worldview: The gods are many; we live in a world filled with the divine. The gods and spirits are all around us, and they do not wish us ill, in this life or in any other. To ask us to fear our gods, to fret over the state of our immortal souls and about ideas of eternal damnation, is for us, as the emperor Julian said, impiety. The gods should not be libeled.
I can’t speak for all Pagans, obviously, but as a Norse Heathen, I believe that we create our own fate. The actions of my ancestors as well as my own actions direct my steps. If a person does evil, it will affect him adversely, but on this plane, not another.
Choices have consequence, but there is always chance for improvement. We can better our lot through right action, by living honorable lives and by showing proper devotion to the gods.
When the focus is on this world, ideas of salvation become meaningless. Christians might worry over my soul, but I need have no concern at all (and Heathens do believe that we have souls that survive the body’s death).
I do not need to heed a particular doctrine or obey a list of supposedly divinely inspired statutes, and I don’t have to believe a certain Galilean was a god, let alone the God, in order to find my way to the halls of my ancestors. It is ritual, not belief, that defines Paganism. We do not worship gods who say “believe this” and “do that” or else.
Christians obsess over the afterlife in a way ancient Pagans would have found odd. I suppose I could be flattered that so much concern is given over my soul’s fate, but really it’s insulting to have others talk about you in such a superior fashion, like adults about a child who is still in the room.
Even Paul Greve refers to those who “have not been given grace as Christians have.” People have a right to their own beliefs, certainly, but Christians might want to be aware how smug (and parochial) this sort of talk sounds to those of us who embrace other beliefs and honor other gods.
The deity Christians worship is, from our perspective, an ethnic deity who has no power over any but his own worshippers. He is a foreign god. I am Scandinavian. I honor the customs and traditions, as well as the gods of my ancestors, of my people.
What plans the gods of other people have for believers is not my business, and Christians might consider worrying less about my soul, which my gods have well in hand.
