I posted the letter to the Financial Times where a college professor from India decried monotheism and declared the benevolent goodness of polytheism and its modern ally, secularism. The letter struck me as provocative and worth mentioning in its own right.
But now I think I see a connection.
Polytheism, of course, was the norm in the Roman Empire. The Empire managed its many gods by united everyone in a common worship of the emperor. Worship as many gods as you like as long as you also worship the apotheosis of the state.
Secularism is, indeed, like polytheism in this sense. Have whatever religious sensibility you like as long as you recognize that your ultimate allegiance is to the secular state which is representative of the real world. Don’t ever let your religion get between you and the state. Keep it private. Keep it in hobby status.
Score one for the man from India.
When it comes to this issue, I unapologetically encourage you to read The End of Secularism. The more Christians (especially those of a pietistic bent who like to privatize their faith) who read it and understand it, the better equipped we will be to confront the creeping return of the rainbow assortment of gods frolicking beneath the banner of a state happy to tolerate them because they don’t count for much in the end.
November 25th, 2009 | 5:22 pm | #1
As someone who has recently taken up the advice to read The End of Secularism, I can testify to the benefits. There’s also the Mohler interview:
http://www.albertmohler.com/2009/11/16/the-end-of-secularism/
November 25th, 2009 | 5:42 pm | #2
Milliner, you can confess that it was my advice. That will make Hunter like me more…. : )
November 25th, 2009 | 6:29 pm | #3
The only problem with Hunter Baker is his lack of a true first name making many of the unwary suspect he is:
1. a seventies feminist writer who forgot the hyphen
2. the child of a Victorian baronet
3. an alien unaware of earth customs.
Really though: read his book. It is quite brilliant!
A man with two first names who wonders if Hunter would like one,
John Mark
November 25th, 2009 | 8:39 pm | #4
I do have a true first name. My true name is Terry Hunter Baker, Jr. I have always been called Hunter because my dad is Terry. If I could go back in time, I would probably write as T.H. Baker so my name would be mysterious like my friend S.T. Karnick or like T.S. Eliot or G.K. Chesterton!
November 25th, 2009 | 9:32 pm | #5
I feel much better, Hunter.
November 26th, 2009 | 8:12 pm | #6
David Bentley Hart addresses the intolerant nature of ancient polytheism in Atheist Delusions. Good stuff.
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