Jesus and the Pagan West

With the relatively recent understanding that the cultural context of contemporary Western society is not as secular as once believed, a re-enchantment is taking place. The revival of pre-Christian European religions has raised the question of whether the West was ever converted or whether Christianity was simply a means of social control. After a millennia and a half of suppression by the dominant religion, Paganism, in its varied expressions, is increasingly considered to be the indigenous religion of Europe with the desire to regain what Christianity usurped.

Cultural fragmentation, pluralization and globalization have raised the issue of religious identity in fresh ways. These factors, along with the emergence of what is commonly entitled postmodernism, have prompted the question, “Who is Jesus?” Fueled by the increasing popularity of higher criticism’s deconstruction of the historical Jesus are the responses that suggest He was in fact a Pagan god seized by Christian theology and propagated as the Christ and that He traveled to southern England and was taught by the Druids.

This essay will first examine the re-enchantment of Western society in order to understand the contemporary religious landscape. Then, acknowledging the renewed interest in spirituality, the study suggests that Europe, especially, was never completely evangelized. As a result, Jesus can easily be grouped together in the pantheon of Pagan gods. However, the historical attestations of Jesus exhibit his authenticity and uniqueness. Finally, the study will suggest a missiologically informed response in presenting the historical Jesus in the context of re-enchanted Europe.

Considering that 80 to 90 percent of early modern Europe was made up of the peasant class,1 it is not out of the question to suggest a remnant of Pagan belief; especially in light of the church’s early struggle with Paganism. These ancient systems of varying beliefs survived in the subconscious of their adherents who called themselves Christians. The medieval historian and practicing Wiccan, Christina Oakley, states,

Those special people who believed in their local spirits, who cultivated psychic or magic powers, who told and retold their ancient myths, who cast spells and performed divinations, who dressed in animal skins – almost all considered themselves Christian once Christianity had arrived and established itself, although in rural areas this may have amounted to no more than a nominal Christianity.2

According to Peter Burke, Christians of early modern Europe recognized the need for missions in their own land as much as in foreign lands. They objected to the many and varied popular customs as Pagan survivals and recognized how many official Christian practices were of pre-Christian origin.3 Barry Raey describes popular religion in early modern England as, “A coherent popular Catholicism, popular Puritanism, religious apathy, radical sectarianism, a vast amorphous world of syncretistic or folkorised Christianity, a corpus of magical beliefs which helped ordinary people to cope with the vagaries of a harsh and uncertain environment.”4 This is illustrated by Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick when they wrote,

The use of holy water and incense, solemn processions (the old lustrations), religious rites of passage marking the turning-points of human life, the veneration of local saints, and the great feast of the dead, the annual Christian Parentalia on All Souls’ Day, can all be seen as direct imitations of Pagan traditions.5

It was not until the Reformers confronted the church and ultimately posited personal salvation without the need of ritual that Christianity in its Protestant form was to some degree free from Pagan influence. Martin Luther, in Gustav Warneck’s view, saw the mission field as the re-Paganized church that he so desired to reform.6 However, Robert Glover stated, “Despite their clear conceptions and statements of fundamental doctrines of evangelical faith, they [reformers] showed a remarkable ignorance of the scope of the divine plan and of Christian duty in relation to the gospel.”7 Nonetheless, Jones and Pennick write,

The reform movements within Catholicism which crystallised into the Protestant Reformation in the early sixteenth century brought about a desire for simplicity of ritual and belief which rejected many of the compromises which the Church had made with Pagan practice.8

Summarily, Protestant Christianity promoted disenchantment with the world and, combined with the emerging rationalism of the Enlightenment, relied on human ability to solve the problems of the supernatural. Consequently, modern science replaced faith and questions of ultimate meaning were resolved by reason. Concomitantly, the Enlightenment project postulated that knowledge was the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. Knowledge, to the modern mind, was objective and certain. The ability of the individual to obtain knowledge was limitless and once obtained the individual could master nature for the benefit of humanity and thus secure a better world.9 Lesslie Newbigin asserted that,

While the Catholic Church had attempted to erect barriers against the Enlightenment, the Protestant churches had, in effect, surrendered the public field – politics, education, industry, economics – to the ideology of the Enlightenment and sought refuge in the private world of the home and the soul.10

The phenomenon of privatized religious faith has been considered a salient feature of secularization.

Secularization and Disenchantment of Western Society

The secularization thesis has a long and more recently embattled history. Max Weber may have first introduced the thesis when he articulated that the process of industrialization, rationalization and bureaucratization attributed to modernity would naturally lead to a decline in religious belief. Thus, modernization would create a society that no longer had the need for the supernatural, mystical and transcendent. This disenchantment of the world was looked at as an irreversible fact of society. Taking the place of the supernatural was the meaning that would be created from one’s function in society rather than from one’s belief.

Peter Berger asked the question of the extent of the involvement of the “Western religious tradition” in carrying the seeds of secularization. Berger asserts that Protestantism stripped itself of mystery, miracle and magic, which were ancient and powerful ideas of the sacred, resulting in a radically transcendent God and a radically depraved humanity. Thus, the excluded middle, which once acted in mediation between God and man, was abolished. To Berger, this increased the implausibility of God and ultimately led to His death.11 “Protestantism served as a historically decisive prelude to secularization, whatever may have been the importance of other factors.”12

Berger did not stop here. He contends that the force of secularization brought out in Protestantism had its roots in the earlier religion of ancient Israel. Using Weber’s phrase, the “disenchantment of the world” began in the Old Testament. The religion of ancient Israel represented the radical transcendence of God who called His people to a complete break with other mysterious and magical religions. The Catholic Church, according to Berger, successfully constrained the secularizing effects of a radically transcendent God and depraved humanity thus, concealing the practice of ancient Israel and “re-enchanted” the world until the Reformation discovered its roots.13

Berger saw that the same secularizing forces in Western society and culture were being exported worldwide through westernization and modernization.14 Similarly, he saw the manifestation of secularization in the withdrawal of the church’s involvement in areas of society and culture that it once influenced. Not only in these areas, Berger, David Martin and Steve Bruce have suggested that the manifestation of secularization is seen in the decline of individual religious consciousness.15

Re-enchantment and Postmodernity

More recently, Berger and Martin have recognized that the secularization thesis does not adequately describe Western society. The expected decline of the influence of religion on society as a result of modernity has not come to fruition. In fact, the world, and in the case at hand, Europe, is becoming increasingly more religious or re-enchanted. Modernity, in Thomas Oden’s words, has spun out in moral decline. The one-time attraction of triumphalistic technological advances, the Enlightenment project, quantifying empiricism and inevitable historical progress has resulted in a moral tailspin of “sexual, interpersonal and familial wreckage.”16 What was once thought to be a natural outcome of modernization, namely a decline in “religious consciousness,” has been demonstrated to be inadequate.17

The re-enchantment of the world is a characteristic feature of postmodernity.18 Oden does not see postmodernity as a rejection of modernity’s ideology for “there is no reason to fight something that is already dead.”19 Rather, postmodernity views modernity as “defunct, obsolete, passé, antiquated.”20 He defines postmodernity in light of the failure of modernity to fulfill meaning in life. The postmodern ideology, then, is described as a “hunger for means of social maintenance, continuity, intergenerational traditioning, historical awareness, freedom from the repressions of modernity.”21 Postmodernity is in search of what modernity failed to find. Loren Wilkinson writes,

Postmodernity is in search of what modernity failed to find.

It is not so surprising, then, that in the contemporary longing for an escape from the modern (which is manifested most dramatically in the cities), many are turning to the ancient religions of the countryside, and arguing that Christianity has little to offer those concerned with the cycle of nature.22

From this vantage point of the re-enchantment of the world it is easy to understand the resurgence of Paganism.

The postmodern identity can be seen, for example, in the construction of contemporary identity based on the mass-media. Douglas Kellner argued that, “TV myth resolved social contradictions in the way that Levi-Strauss described the function of traditional myth and provide mythologies of the sort described by Barthes which idealize contemporary values and institutions and thus exalt the established way of life.”23 Thus, with the popularity of American television programs in Europe such as Sabrina, the teenaged witch, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Smallville and others popular culture is getting a heavy dose of a pre-Christian created reality.

Postmodernism, then, can be understood in Laurence Cahoone’s instructive taxonomy of positive postmodernism. Positive postmodernism attempts a positive reinterpretation of fundamental issues regarding humanity, society, art, politics, the self or God in light of postmodernist values. Michael York, professor of sociology at Bath Spa University College and a self-identified shaman, expresses this idea in relationship to new religions,

The postmodernity of New Age, Human Potential, goddess Spirituality and Neo-Paganism does not deny the utility and validity of legitimate scientific inquiry, but it asserts the spiritual reality encoded within the metaphorical world of myth and religion. It has moved beyond the limits of logical positivism and scientific empiricism to explore what it perceives as a magical-mystical reality only fragmentedly retained or perceived in any given traditional religious belief-system.24

While attempting to avoid the inconsistencies of relativism, positive postmodernism stresses the plurality of quests for certainty in knowledge. Cahoone states, “This category refers to writing that applies general postmodern themes to particular subject matters in order to offer a new vision or understanding of them.”25 This “new vision” is looking back to antiquity for meaning and is articulated by a number of Pagan insiders interviewed by the author. For example, one insider states, “My feelings about Druidry is that it offers one of the most direct ways of connecting with those God/Goddess manifestations and through its reverence to Nature offers mankind a stabilizing reconnection with who we really are. This is something that Western civilization is desperately in need of.”26

The literature on Paganism testifies to a general consensus of religious beliefs. Jones and Pennick, thus, define Paganism with three characteristics. First, Paganism is polytheistic. It recognizes a multiplicity of spiritual beings that may or may not act as avatars. Second, Paganism views nature as a theophany. It is a manifestation of divinity rather than a “fallen” creation of the divine. Third, Paganism recognizes the Goddess (with a deliberate use of capital “G”) as the principle female divinity. She is distinguished from other geographically particular goddesses. Similarly, Paganism recognizes the God (here not meant to be the Judeo-Christian concept of God) in addition to or in place of the Goddess.27

The terms “Pagan” and “neo-Pagan” were once thought of pejoratively; however, they are increasingly looked upon as terms of endearment.28 Those adherents to pre-Christian European native religions in one form or another are proud to be Pagan or neo-Pagan and do not shy away from using the terms. As understood by them, the term means,

An individual whose interest in the religious sphere lies in patterns of belief which are non-orthodox and non-traditional in Western society and which more specifically pre-date Western society’s dominant belief system as represented, for example, by Christianity or Judaism.29

Pagan has the contemporary understanding that relates its belief systems to pre-Christian mystery religions as well as European native religions. Etymologically derived from the Latin paganus, meaning one who lives in the country, the term’s original usage described anyone who worshipped local spirits.30 Pagan, therefore, describes a religion that is a nature-venerating theophany personified in polytheistic systems of belief. However, the resurgence of Paganism, while reviving the positive aspects of ancient forms, is understood as a contemporary expression of ancient belief systems.31

Neo-Paganism, on the other hand, does not necessarily represent a structured belief system. It must be noted that ancient forms of Paganism were polytheistic whereas neo-Paganism is considered a “theology of polarity”32 emphasizing the gender of the gods. Furthermore, Jones and Pennick point out that “neo-Pagan” is a term generally used by American commentators for all contemporary practices related to Paganism of any form.33 Pagan insiders vary on their understanding and use of the terms. For example, one informant states,

Pagan refers to following the ancient ways, neoPaganism is following the old path as we think it was followed. One of the problems is that no one knows for sure what the ancient Druids followed. They didn't write anything down. So, ADF Druidry is a reconstruction religion. We do this by researching history, archaeology and the way humans lived and their belief systems and their migrations.34

Nonetheless, to further delimit the terms Paganism and neo-Paganism it must be noted that they are not a part of the New Age movement. While there are similarities between these religious belief systems, Paul Heelas argues that the New Age movement is a product of modernity.35 Paganism, on the other hand, appears to be a product of postmodernity if postmodernity is understood as the application of the past in the present.36 York suggests that even though New Age and Paganism are sometimes difficult to distinguish, there are two salient differences. First, New Age pursues a “transcendent metaphysical reality,” whereas Paganism pursues an “immanent locus of deity.” Second, New Age self-identifies as an innovative religious orientation and Paganism self-identifies as historically continuous with past traditions.37

Growth of Paganism

In 1996 the Pagan Hospice and Funeral Trust in the UK reported that,

There are at least 25,000 Pagans living, working and practising in Britain, but this is a conservative estimate, since there is no centralised body. Comparably, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in Britain number only 20,000.38

In 1999 the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that an undocumented 1997 study indicated there were approximately 100,000 practicing Pagans in the United Kingdom, an increase of 95,000 since 1990. The same report stated that the Pagan Federation, an organization founded in 1971 to provide information about Paganism and to counter misconceptions regarding the religion, received 100 inquiries a month from potential adherents.39 The BBC reported that on 21 June 2001 ten thousand people gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice, an increase of 2,000 from the year before, and 22,000 celebrate the summer solstice in 2002.40 In 2003 BBC reported over 30,000 at the event.

Estimates for other European countries are not readily available. The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) reports the presence of affiliated groups in the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic.41 The order was revived 1984 after a hiatus of several years due to the death of its founder and has grown at a 41.5% annual growth rate. Similarly, the 1993 creation of the World Congress on Native Religions is predominately European in membership. The congress has the desire to search for authentic native religions and renew their practices in the contemporary religious landscape.

Cultural Congruency between Paganism and Western Religious Beliefs

According to Rodney Stark, a new religious movement’s (NRM) success is, to a certain degree, based on the extent to which it retains cultural continuity or what he calls “cultural capital.” Cultural capital, according to Stark, results from an individual’s socialization and education (capital) in a particular culture.42 Stark states, “religious movements will spread more readily to the extent that they build upon the familiar.”43 In other words, they grow to the extent that they utilize acceptable cultural boundaries thus preventing a complete discontinuity between the culture of the movement and that of the potential adherent.

Stark suggests an environment that is religiously unregulated, comprised of weakened conventional faiths and gives the perception of success to the first generation adherents are important factors in a favorable ecology in which a NRM can grow.44 He suggests that individuals who are no longer active in a religious body will fill the ranks of NRMs more so than those who are active. Thus, where participation by members and attendees of religious groups is low there will be a high incidence of NRMs.45

The 1998 International Social Survey Program on religion (ISSP)46 interviewed 18,523 West Europeans.47 Eighty-five percent indicated that they had not participated in religious or church related volunteer work in the past year while 32% never pray. Similarly, 45% attend church less than once a year or never, compared to 17% who attended once a week or more and 62% never take part in religious activities outside of attending services. Interestingly enough, 67% claim some affiliation to a traditional Christian church while 23% claim no affiliation. Data like this leads Stark to conclude that NRMs are growing at a faster rate in Europe than in the States.

This does not necessarily suggest that Paganism will be successful in the Western spiritual landscape. However, it does point to the potential for success. The very notion that Western society leans as much to the belief in the sacredness of nature in itself as to its sacredness given by God is congruent with Paganism (Table 1). Not only this, but the belief that astrology expresses scientific truth as well as the belief in horoscopes, fortune tellers and good luck charms are all congruent with the beliefs of contemporary Paganism (Tables 2 and 3). With this in mind, the growing numbers of those that would be considered “nature worshippers” should not surprise us. According to Thomas Luckmann, nature religions are one of the most successful purveyors of worldview in the religiously pluralistic marketplace of Europe.48

The diversity of religious beliefs is an indicator that religion continues to play an important role in the lives of people living in Western Europe. In general, the data demonstrate that traditional Christian beliefs have declined while non-traditional beliefs have risen. After analysis of the ISSP 1991 data on religion, Andrew Greeley suggested that “the religion and the superstition survive and that indeed we may have a lot more in common with medieval peasants than we had thought.”50 This is quite a contrast from what Keith Thomas wrote 20 years before Greeley, “Astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts and fairies, are now rightly disdained by intelligent people.”51 He added, “What is certain about the various beliefs discussed in this book is that today they have either disappeared or at least greatly decayed in prestige.”52 However, the data suggests otherwise.

Greeley asserts that religion continues to play an important role in the lives of Europeans. At the same time, magic is increasing and growing in situations where religious faith is uncertain.53 While Greeley provisionally agrees that the belief in magic, fortunetellers, astrology and good luck charms measure New Age attitudes, it is more likely that this continued fascination with what was once considered superstition is a result of the tenacity of European popular religion.54 According to Peter Beyer, the rise of Pagan religion testifies to “the critique and confirmation of contemporary social normality.”55 He adds, “What makes the rise of contemporary nature religion genuinely intriguing is not simply its counter-structural or even counter-cultural symbolic strategy, but the intricate links between the latter and the values and dominant structures of global society.”56 This increasing belief is coming into the mainstream of popular Western culture.

It is also significant to be reminded that Table 3 suggests astrology is increasingly considered scientific. As an example of this belief, on 13-14 June 2003 I attended a conference by invitation of Michael York at Bath Spa University College in Bath, England entitled “Astrology and the Academy: The Inaugural Conference of the Sophia Centre.” The purpose of the conference was to celebrate “the return of the critical study of astrology’s place in the world to the university environment, placed within the context of humanity’s perennial use of the sky for religious, artistic, literary, mythological and scientific purposes.”58 The speakers were academics in various fields from the United Kingdom, United States, Poland, Finland, Brazil, Spain, and France.59

In a plenary address, Ronald Hutton, professor of history at the University of Bristol, posited that the Western church fathers left the question of celestial deities open. Citing Augustine, Hutton suggests that his lack of explanation of the planets in effect allowed for the possibility of their recognition as deities. In fact, according to Hutton, by 1320 Western intellectuals considered the planets as deities controlled by God. There was the belief that Christians could legitimately use the planets to gain understanding for their future.60 However, Augustine clearly had an aversion to astrology. In the City of God he notes,

But that all things come to pass by fate, we do not say; nay we affirm that nothing comes to pass by fate; for we demonstrate that the name of fate, as it is wont to be used by those who speak of fate, meaning thereby the position of the stars at the time of each one's conception or birth, is an unmeaning word, for astrology itself is a delusion.61

While Hutton might exaggerate the level of acceptance of astrology on the part of the church, it is without doubt that the lay people continued in their beliefs. These beliefs in the efficacy of astrology have continued in Western society. Consider for example, the data from International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Environment I.

All of the data on religious belief in religiously unregulated countries of Western Europe along with the data on the resurgence of Paganism brings me to the conclusion that religious beliefs continue to remain strong. In fact, the data indicates a tenacious holding on to beliefs that were once considered superstitious. There is also an appearance of a legitimizing effect of the folk beliefs due to the attention of the academy. Paganism is positioned in Western society for growth due in part to its continuity with the beliefs of West Europeans. How then should we engage re-enchanted Europe?

Paganism is positioned in Western society for growth due in part to its continuity with the beliefs of West Europeans.

Before consideration is given to evangelism the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” must be answered. It is widely accepted in today’s ultramodern/postmodern context that formal religion is open for criticism. One insider of Paganism stated,

Religions of a book will become increasingly unstable as they try to adhere to what was 'right' at a brief moment 2000 years ago, etc. Where will you find God? IN the books of men? Or within His/her creation? If you use the natural world as your text book, then you will always be [able to find God].63

There are two common responses in the Pagan community to the question of Jesus that build upon the work of Peter Gandy and Timothy Freke as well as Gordon Strachan. Freke and Gandy have been leaders in this criticism and have found wide acceptance of their ideas from the Pagan community. Not uncommon was a response like another insider to their popular book The Jesus Mysteries: Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God?,

There are so many books written to counter others, I try to select what I believe based on what I think sounds most logical to me. The Jesus Mysteries is just the latest book I’ve read on the subject, that is why I used it. I found it one of the better books on the subject. I found it interesting that they started out trying to prove the existence of Jesus, but in the end could not find the proof in their eyes.64

She continues,

I’m still not convinced that Jesus existed. But if he did, I think he would have been a scholar and a teacher of the old Pagan Mysteries. He would have tried to bring a deeper understanding of life to his people. He would have tried to break away from the traditional stories and teach the truth. From what has been written about him, that is precisely what he tried to do. But people in authority saw him as a threat to their control over the populous. The things Jesus tried to teach are things, we as Druids, are trying to revive, the inner mysteries.65

From Freke and Gandy’s perspective,

For 2000 years the West has been dominated by the idea that Christianity is sacred and unique while Paganism is primitive and the work of the Devil. To even consider that they could be parts of the same tradition has been simply unthinkable. Therefore, although the true origins of Christianity have been obvious all along, few have been able to see them, because to do so requires a radical break with the conditioning of our culture. Our contribution has been to dare to think the unthinkable and to present our conclusions in a popular book rather than some dry academic tome. This is certainly not the last word on this complex subject, but we hope it may be a significant call for a complete reappraisal of the origins of Christianity.66

They began their exploration of the historicity of Jesus from the presupposition that oppressive Christianity of the Middle Ages suppressed the truth of its origin and that in fact Gnosticism came first.

The traditional version of history bequeathed to us by the authorities of the Roman Church is that Christianity developed from the teachings of a Jewish Messiah and that Gnosticism was a later deviation. What would happen, we wondered, if the picture were reversed and Gnosticism viewed as the authentic Christianity, just as the Gnostics themselves claimed? Could it be that orthodox Christianity was a later deviation from Gnosticism and that Gnosticism was a synthesis of Judaism and the Pagan Mystery religion? This was the beginning of the Jesus Mysteries Thesis.67

Ultimately, they conclude that Jesus was a myth created by an elite group and propagated throughout the world.

Another popular view of Jesus is the belief that he came to England with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. One insider from England comments,

Jesus Christ was a man who had a vision and from an early age built up a following, that was to eventually lead him to his death on a cross. I understand that he traveled to Britain with his Uncle, who was a merchant/carpenter, and they came to the tin mines of the West Country. During these visits, they may have met up with druids.68

Gordon Strachan argues that this is indeed the case. Based on a literal understanding of a reference made by Augustine of Canterbury to the construction of the old chapel at Glastonbury Abbey, Strachan has developed an entire theory that Jesus visited the area during the missing years in the Gospels. The claims of Christ’s provenance in England are loosely based upon a popular poem by English poet William Blake (1757-1827), “And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time.”

And did those feet in ancient time / Walk upon England’s mountains green? / And was the holy Lamb of God / On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine / Shine forth upon our clouded hills? / And was Jerusalem builded here / Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold! / Bring me my arrows of desire! / Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold! / Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight, / Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, / Till we have built Jerusalem / In England's green and pleasant land.69

Blake was fascinated by the possibility of the Joseph of Arimathea legend and suggested that the Jews themselves were ancient descendents of Druids.70 However, more elaborate theories, such as Strachan’s, suggest that Jesus learned the concept of human sacrifice and atonement from the Druids who regularly practiced such rituals.

Interestingly enough, most Pagans that were interviewed believed in the historicity of Jesus as the founder of Christianity. For example, one insider states,

As for Jesus Christ [I] believe he did live once and that he was a holy man. But that somewhere in history when man wrote the Bible. That things that were said and things he did were taken out of context and twisted. I believe that man wrote his version of the events and what he wanted the men and women to abide by. That is just my opinion. I could go on but then I would be ranting.71

However, the issue of his messianic role, not to mention his deity, remains a question. Consider the following comment, “Of Jesus Christ, I think that his teachings have been distorted over the years, and of course they have been used to justify great cruelty such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. I do not believe he was the Messiah (nor do I necessarily believe there will be a Messiah).”72 There seemed to be general consensus that Jesus’ teachings were corrupted by his followers. “Jesus Christ - teaching were not bad in and of themselves, but were later corrupted by his followers.”73 In fact, Pagans would agree with other pluralists that he is one path of many leading to union with something higher.

I believe that we all are praying, worshipping, and practicing to the same god/dess, or Spirit or the One. We just all call them a different name. We need different religions and faiths. It's the diversity of people, culture, environment and belief that makes it so. No one religion is the right one. You have to find the one that makes sense to you and feel right. I may not agree with some of the formal religions but then some of them don't agree with my beliefs. You practice yours and don't bother or look down at me for my beliefs and I'll do the same. We can all tolerate each others' beliefs and faiths.74

Based on this data, as well as the decline in traditional Christian beliefs, any approach to evangelism must begin with earning respect by understanding people and dialoguing with them respectfully.75 However, two issues emerge as essential in such a dialogue: the reliability of the New Testament and contemporary Christology. These are a prolegomena to evangelistic discourse with the Pagan West.

Reliability of the New Testament

Arguments for the reliability of the New Testament are not new. The classical arguments utilize three common tests: bibliographical, internal and external evidence tests. While the arguments for the reliability of the New Testament do not necessarily testify to its veracity, they do point to the fact that what we possess today is a historically reliable document that accurately relates the events of the New Testament period.76 Not only is the reliability significant, it testifies to early theological beliefs held by the growing Christian community.

The significance of the issue addressing New Testament reliability cannot be underestimated. For one, the pre AD 70 dating of the New Testament synoptic gospels and Acts clearly establishes an early belief in the resurrection of Christ and the performance of signs and wonders. These early beliefs were circulated and could be confirmed by eyewitnesses. Not only does the reliability of the New Testament testify to early beliefs, it also testifies to the claims that Christ made about himself. Therefore, it is significant that when Christ claimed to be God, we have a reliable witness to his claim and eyewitnesses could confirm it. While the mystery religions (such as what Freke and Gandy posit77) hoped for new birth, signs and wonders and the resurrection of the dead, it is only in Christianity that we see fulfillment. Thus, with the reliability of the New Testament, arguments of Gnostic primacy are dispelled.

Christological Arguments

An ontological and functional argument for Jesus is also necessary in a developing encounter with the Pagan West. While there is a general acceptance of the historicity of Jesus among Pagans, there is a growing belief that he could just as easily be incorporated into a mythological pantheon of gods. Obviously, this leads to the notion that there are many paths to God and Jesus is simply one of those. The historicity of Jesus is therefore an important component in contemporary dialogue.78

Other literary references outside of the New Testament, while many doubt their authenticity or suggest Christian interpolation, are equally important in the discussion of the historicity of Christ. For example, in the Testimonium Flavius, Josephus provides a Jewish attestation to the person of Christ. While many scholars disagree about the extent of Christian interpolation of the three extant Greek manuscripts, the 1971 discovery of a 10th century testimony in Arabic by Shlomo Pines attests to reliable evidence for Christ’s historicity.

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon their loyalty to him. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly they believed that he was the Messiah, concerning whom the Prophets have recounted wonders.79

Having archeological and literary testimony to Jesus outside of the Gospel accounts only serves to demonstrate his historicity as well as that of the New Testament. In spite of all the modern quests for the historical Jesus, however, we must conclude with Thomas Schreiner that, “The only Jesus of Nazareth we have is the one interpreted by the four Gospel writers, and there are good grounds for trusting their testimony.”80

The articulation of an ontological Christology was formulated by the early church fathers in the context of competing theologies. In spite of the growing belief that Christian history was written by the victor, those competing theologies were at times a majority. Take for example the Arian controversy. A significant number of eastern Christians, if not the majority, were Arian in their beliefs. Constantine mustered the first council in Nicae (AD 325) to discuss the heresy propagated by Arius; namely, that Christ was inferior to the Father. Arius wrote, “Even if He is called God, He is not God truly, but by participation in grace. . . . He is God in name only.”81 We see the strength of this movement in the realization that it was very missionary in nature. Similarly, its strength was not simply spiritual, but political as well. It is at the time of Augustine’s writing of The City of God that the Arian Christian Alaric sacks Rome in AD 410 and the beginning of the political fall of Rome ensues.

Other heresies emerged as well and just like Arianism, most dealt with Christological issues. The second council held in Constantinople (AD 381) convened to affirm the creed developed at Nicae and to argue for the third person of the Trinity. The third council (Ephesus, AD 431), while giving Mary prominence as θεοτόκος, denounced the heresy promulgated by followers of Nestorius and Celestius. The fourth council assembled at Chalcedon in AD 451 to define the Trinity. At Constantinople in AD 553 the fifth council convened to deal with the issue of Monophysitism. The sixth council gathered once more at Constantinople in AD 680 to conclude that there are “two natural wills and two natural operations indivisibly, inconvertibly, inseparably, inconfusedly”82 in Christ.

Thus, it was in an environment of controversy that the great Christological statement of Chalcedon was formulated. While many would object to the “Greekness” of the formulation, it nonetheless remains as a great testimony to the nature of Jesus Christ.83

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Substance, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

While ontological Christology states Christ’s nature as God, it is functional Christology that connects him with us.84 It is this connection with us that helps us understand God’s heart for humanity.

The growth of Pagan religions testifies to the notion set forth in this paper: Western Europe is not as secular as once believed. If we are to engage Western Europe evangelistically, the starting point must be Christ. Just as one fundamental characteristic of postmodernism is looking back to antiquity for meaning so the beginning point for engaging the Pagan West with the gospel of Jesus Christ must be a clear articulation of his historicity. He is not simply another Pagan god. His historicity cannot be questioned. What was spoken of metaphorically in the mystery religions and early Christian Gnosticism was accomplished in Christ.85 Given the reliability of the New Testament gospels and the historicity of the person of Jesus, what he has said about himself as well as what others have said (ontological Christology) in addition to what he did (functional Christology) provides the foundation to the message we proclaim.

He is not simply another Pagan god.