Abstract
How do you make sense of contemporary nature- or eco-spiritualities and nature revering currents like modern Paganism or the new animism? The paper addresses the human relation to nature on the example of its worship as a peculiar topic within European religious history. The methodology involves comparing the ethnographical data from my fieldwork among modern Pagans in Europe between 2014–2017 with the history of ideas perspective and analysis of primary and secondary literature on nature worship. The paper explores nature worship topos as an idolatrous act in early Christianity. It analyses its later transformations throughout the Enlightenment, Romantic period, the rise of modern sciences in the 19th century until the utilization of this concept by various New Age, Pagan, or eco-spiritual or animistic movements in the 20th- and 21st-century. Next, it juxtaposes the historical analysis with fieldwork data focusing on the modern Pagan understanding of nature reverence or worship. It addresses the immanent notion of the divine as a way of challenging the Christian, transcendental notion of the divine. The paper argues that despite alternative religions like modern Paganism opposing Christianity, the Christian topoi of nature worship still shapes beliefs and practices within these religions. In conclusion, the paper offers conceptual tools to understand nature worship and human-nature relations. Also, it brings attention to possible Christian lenses in the way we understand human-nature relations in currently very popular indigenous or pre- or non-Christian ontologies.
Presenters
Pavel HorakJunior Researcher, Department of Critical Heritage Studies, Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Religious Commonalities and Differences
KEYWORDS
NATURE, PAGANISM, CHRISTIANITY, ALTERNATIVE RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, ECOLOGY, INDIGENOUS
