Fluffy
A fool
This will be the first in, hopefully, a series of threads designed to help explain various Christian Wiccan beliefs that focus on an apparent conflict between the two religions. Please remember this forum is not designed for debate but information and questions about a specific religion.
This particular thread will focus on the deities of Christianity and Wicca.
How can a monotheistic religion be combined with a polytheistic one?
There is nothing actually inherent in preventing such a combination but obviously the result cannot be both at the same time. There are a number of different ways of taking this.
Many Wiccans are infact monotheistic believing in a single divine source in which we can know very little about. This divine source can be interpreted in a vast array of forms which make up the various Wiccan pantheons but all are actually the same thing, just looked at from a different angle. As a flow diagram this might be depicted as follows:
The Creator --> The god and goddess --> all the individual god and goddesses.
There is a very similar structure in Christianity known as the Trinity. Wiccans of this mold are believers in a duality or plurality. You can view the seperate interpretations of Jesus Christ in much the same way.
However, many Wiccans are polytheists and for them reconciliation is a little harder but still totally viable. For example, Jesus continually tries to make a distinction between himself and God indicating that there is a sufficient pool of differences between them to treat them as seperate entities. Given this, a Christian Wiccan might argue that viewing Christianity as monotheistic is not actually congruent with Jesus' teachings.
There are at least two points in the history of Christianity where a strong belief in a Christian pantheon has been held by a large section of believers. The first of these, during the very beginnings of Christianity as it tried to break away from the older pagan religions, is seen clearly in the earlier books of the OT where God refers to himself in the plural. It is also highly likely that the majority of early Christians believed in a pantheon of sorts since a sudden break between polytheism and monotheism would not have created a sufficent follower base for the new religion, the change being too radical to introduce all at once.
The second incidence of this can be seen throughout the Church's history in the majority of rural Christian areas. Before the advent of Protestantism, many lay people did not pray directly to God but to various saints, most commonly Paul and Mary. They were seen to exhibit certain qualities allowing them to aid with specific incidences in much the same way as Demeter could be called upon to aid in a harvest or Mars would be asked for help during wartime. In other words, they were viewing the Creator through a different angle each time.
A Christian Wiccan could argue that these interpretations are closer to what Christianity was meant to be and the monotheistic overtones were only introduced later and emphasised for various secular reasons such as control over religion etc.
That's all for now folks
Fluffy
This particular thread will focus on the deities of Christianity and Wicca.
How can a monotheistic religion be combined with a polytheistic one?
There is nothing actually inherent in preventing such a combination but obviously the result cannot be both at the same time. There are a number of different ways of taking this.
Many Wiccans are infact monotheistic believing in a single divine source in which we can know very little about. This divine source can be interpreted in a vast array of forms which make up the various Wiccan pantheons but all are actually the same thing, just looked at from a different angle. As a flow diagram this might be depicted as follows:
The Creator --> The god and goddess --> all the individual god and goddesses.
There is a very similar structure in Christianity known as the Trinity. Wiccans of this mold are believers in a duality or plurality. You can view the seperate interpretations of Jesus Christ in much the same way.
However, many Wiccans are polytheists and for them reconciliation is a little harder but still totally viable. For example, Jesus continually tries to make a distinction between himself and God indicating that there is a sufficient pool of differences between them to treat them as seperate entities. Given this, a Christian Wiccan might argue that viewing Christianity as monotheistic is not actually congruent with Jesus' teachings.
There are at least two points in the history of Christianity where a strong belief in a Christian pantheon has been held by a large section of believers. The first of these, during the very beginnings of Christianity as it tried to break away from the older pagan religions, is seen clearly in the earlier books of the OT where God refers to himself in the plural. It is also highly likely that the majority of early Christians believed in a pantheon of sorts since a sudden break between polytheism and monotheism would not have created a sufficent follower base for the new religion, the change being too radical to introduce all at once.
The second incidence of this can be seen throughout the Church's history in the majority of rural Christian areas. Before the advent of Protestantism, many lay people did not pray directly to God but to various saints, most commonly Paul and Mary. They were seen to exhibit certain qualities allowing them to aid with specific incidences in much the same way as Demeter could be called upon to aid in a harvest or Mars would be asked for help during wartime. In other words, they were viewing the Creator through a different angle each time.
A Christian Wiccan could argue that these interpretations are closer to what Christianity was meant to be and the monotheistic overtones were only introduced later and emphasised for various secular reasons such as control over religion etc.
That's all for now folks
Fluffy
