The Evangelical Universalist Forum

On "household gods" and polytheism

A few scattered thoughts, as I have not taken the time to really think them through - yet:

I’ve read, in sundry places, that the destruction of idols is a necessary thing for true spirituality and worship of the One True God.
In a way, that saddens me: in a way. I’ve found over the years that of the two 'Ways" - via negativa or via positiva, also known as the Way of the Destruction of Images and the Way of the Affirmation of Images (and there are other ways of stating it), I have always gravitated to the Affirmation end of the scale.

Question for self: Difference between Image and Idol? Eastern Orthodoxy and the Icon?

For some thinkers, the world by necessity is dis-enchanted by the coming of the true God. All lesser gods, all other claims to ultimate concern must be banished. I’ve always felt that the world needs to be re-enchanted. I suppose that is the main reason I read a lot of fantasy, most often by a Christian author who is familiar with the medieval world-view. “The Discarded Image” by C.S. Lewis, which I read a number of years ago, revealed to me the richness of the Roman and medieval imagination in peopling the earth with a wide and fascinating number of spirits and sprites and longevae and a myriad other beings.

I relate to that, a lot. How comforting for people who were taught the High God was so high, so remote, so unapproachable, to have, say, a god of the hearth; a god of the road outside one’s home; a goddess of the orchard, of the woods, of the streams, of the bedroom, of the bath, of the table.
And I think that each of those ‘gods’ were part of a myth that carried strong emotional resonance - folks felt that the hearth should be comforting, as it was looked over by a god or goddess; and that the table should be a place of comfort and togetherness and hospitality for the same reason. And that in some way each of the ‘gods’ was an Icon, not an image, of the High God, so could be related to emotionally with safety. A walk in the woods, jumping over a stream, hearing the thunder, reaping a harvest - all part of an enchanted world.

I think Lewis stated somewhere in that book that sure, that old world-view is not true, but that he knew it to be fuller, richer, more holistic than ‘our’ world.

I was joking with a friend some time ago, that I interpret life through the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, (though really I wasn’t joking, just fishing for a response) and he looked at me seriously and said he fully understood, but for him it was the Narnia Chronicles. Selah.

For me as well, at 65 yrs, I’m into Gnomes. Not stupid silly gnomes, but the real thing (!), like in the big Gnome book that came out 20 years or more ago, by Wil Huygen. I had a weather vane made for my wife one year, a gnome with a red peaked hat, pushing a garden cart - my wife is a great garden cart pusher - it looks great on top of the house and gets some comments. It’s one of our little household - what do I say? - it’s like a reminder of the metanarrative that is the Bagwill family - in the garden, caring for animals, we both love the giant Sequoia in the corner of the property, there’s an old cowboy-built barn that I have converted to a luthiery shop - I can imagine that the household gods of yore served much the same purpose. We entrust to the icon our story, and when we feel empty, the icon brings back the story and we once again feel in the stream of life.

Do you have such icons or images or household ‘gods’ ? Something that is an Affirmation of meaning, of soul, of story?

I’m just rambling here, folks, thanks for the indulgence. :slight_smile:

Oh and btw - I’m neither a pagan nor polytheist :slight_smile: Pretty much Orthodox ( like THAT clears anything up :laughing: )

I have a good friend whose ‘faith’ was a little different flavor than his wife’s, and after a number of contentious years on that issue, he slapped his hand on the kitchen table and said “Dammit, I’m a man FIRST, a Christian SECOND, and a Catholic THIRD.” That really crystallized the issue, and as loving partners of many years, once that was said it was then worked out.
My point is a basic one that Thomas Moore developed in his book “Care of the Soul” in the section on “polytheistic psychology”, that we are each made up of a number of sub-personalities - if you draw yourself a box, and divide it up into nine equal size boxes, and in each little box write some area of your life that is dominant at one time or another - nudist, student, wife, friend, Christian, quilter, bird watcher, stand up comedian, whatever - it helps you see that we are in fact not just one thing - yet Jesus is Lord (or wants to be) over each of those areas. And that is a source of strength, we get to know about God in different ways, which is why I was going on about household gods and such in the first rambling post; and it helps us to see that our faith is multi-dimensional as well, and not always the same thing in all circumstances.

I put this under General Theology because anthropology and Theology are so closely related.

WOW! i really identify with this.
I see this ancient worldview in which everything is alive and wondrous as a beautiful thing. For me it doesn’t come close to taking away from God…in fact this mythical lens through which i would love to view the world makes me love Him and His creatures more.

there is a difference between God being Everything and God being through and in Everything. The difference between Pantheism and Panentheism…the latter is quite orthodox in my understanding…whereas the former sort of takes away from God and His personhood.

I can appreciate this idea of God being able to show glimpses of Himself to our Pagan forefathers that sought Him as small gods of the hearth or the river or the rain. God is gentle…and it’s only when these beliefs mutate into controlling religions involving human sacrifice or conquest or both that He gets upset, it seems…or when someone truly worships an empty idol and rejects the fullness of God expressed ubiquitously in Creation or even the person’s own mythology/theology/history.

i think we can make idols of facets of God in Christian faith, too…the Bible is full of so much language describing God…some of it contradictory (see How (Not) To Speak of God by Peter Rawlins) that it does its best to prevent us latching onto one thing about God and making it God (which is an intellectual idol). we could do that as Pagans, too…elevating one facet above all the others. but those who Knew God, even then, where swift to recognise a new revelation of Him in Christ, though they may not have really understood that’s what they were doing.

Will Huygen…i had forgotten his name…but those books are wondrous and magical! i LOVE them!

I am also a fan of all things fantasy, although i must admit i find non-Christian authors, lacking an agenda, tend to be a bit more real sometimes…unless we’re talking Philip Pullman, who while awesome, had a clear anti-Christian agenda, which undermined his books somewhat :frowning:

I’m with you on everything you said there.
As for authors of fantasy: my main ‘brain candy’ is hard SF, Greg Bear, Alistair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter et. al., but when an author really nails a fantasy, like for instance Kij Johnson’s short fantasy ‘At the Mouth of the River of Bees’ - (link below) the utter strangeness, yet ultimate goodness of the story is a wonderful thing and, I think, nurturing for the imagination.
Thanks for your input. I did not think anyone would resonate with it.

kijjohnson.com/river-of-bees.html

Those are all names i have not encountered yet…thanks, i will have a look for them!

i’m massively into Terry Pratchett, i must confess, but LoTR is in a class of its own…i also love Clive Barker’s work, but it has a lot of content that is possibly offensive and definitely questionable, so i can’t flat out recommend him.