The Encyclopedia of World Religions

332 S Paganism, Modern

ples. Increasingly, themes from non-European cul tures, African, Asian, and Native American, have found their way into Modern Paganism as well. A substantial part of Modern Paganism is Wicca, or WITCHCRAFT , which tends to be eclectic, adapting ideas and RITUALS from many sources or creating its own. (Modern Wiccans emphasize that their witchcraft has none of the negative connotations sometimes associated with the word but is entirely a benign, nature-oriented faith.) Modern Paganism has sources in folklore, romanticism, and a few early revivals, especially in England. But as a major movement it is essen tially a product of the 1960s and the great spiri tual upheaval of that era. Many people found themselves alienated from conventional Western religion and sought a way closer to nature and its cycles, sensitive to feminism and the spiritual equality of men and women, and bearing a roman tic sense of identity with the distant past. The col orful participatory rituals characteristic of Modern Paganism, featuring circle dances, rich robes, and attractive offerings of fruit and flowers, appealed to dwellers in stark modern cities. These dramatic rites evoke an immediate sense of sacred space and time that makes religious reality more tangible for some than do the services of ordinary churches and temples. What are some major themes of Modern Paganism? First, the desire to be in close touch spiritually with nature. Many rituals are outdoors, if possible in natural woodland settings, and har monize with the turning of the seasons. The sol stices and equinoxes are significant ritual times. Many Neo-Pagans are concerned with current ecological issues, seeing them as having an impor tant spiritual dimension. Many believe deeply that nature is infused with divinity, perhaps with spirits still in trees, hills, and springs as in ancient times. They see their belief as a new cosmic religion ori ented to the tides of nature rather than to events and persons in human history. Second, they emphasize the importance of the feminine as well as the masculine in the divine. Some are worshippers of the G ODDESS , the Great Mother, as well as of G OD . Some Wiccan groups,

prefer a theory that justifies certain kinds of war, the “just war theory.” Perhaps the most prominent religious paci fist in the last 100 years was a Hindu, Mohan das K. Gandhi (1869–1948), often known as the Mahatma. Gandhi advocated what he called “soul force” rather than “body-force.” The goal, he said, was to persuade opponents of the truth, not to coerce them by using or threatening to use vio lence. Those who use soul-force, however, must be prepared to suffer or even die. Although he was a Hindu, Gandhi received inspiration from non Hindu sources, such as the Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew and the writings of Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Gandhi’s ideas profoundly influenced the American civil rights leader Martin Luther K ING Jr. (1929–1968), among others. Further reading: Peter Brock, Varieties of Pacifism: A Survey from Antiquity to the Outset of the Twentieth Century, 4th ed. (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1998); A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ed. Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard (New York: Warner Books, 2001); Eknath Easwaran, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, A Man to Match His Mountains, 2d ed. (Tomales, Calif.: Nilgiri Press, 1999); The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas, ed. Louis Fischer, 2d ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 2002); David R. Smock, Perspectives on Pacifism: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Views on Nonviolence and International Conf lict (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1995); Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace, ed. Arnold Kotler (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1987). Paganism, Modern Contemporary movements that have tried to revive or reconstruct in a way appropriate to today’s world the religious style of the ancient or pre-Christian world. Modern Paganism, or Neo-Paganism, includes groups that base their spiritual practices on the religion of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Celts, and Nordic peo