Pagan ritual and monotheism

Bibliographic Data

ID23583366
AuthorsJohn North (corresponding author)
Year2010
Pages34-52
Publication date2010-04-29
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueOne God (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511730115.004
OpenAlexW2125811830
ISBN9780511730115
LanguageEN
Citations received9

The Quarrels and Divisions of Religion were Evils unknown to the Heathen. The reason was because the Religion of the Heathen consisted rather in Rites and Ceremonies than in any constant belief. For you may imagine what kind of Faith theirs was when the chief Doctors and Fathers of their Church were the Poets. Francis Bacon, ‘Of Unity in Religion’ (1622) INTRODUCTION Bacon is here making ― in a characteristically short space ― three separate points, all of them still much in contention today; his thought will provide the starting points for this paper. First, he is claiming that religious life in antiquity was not the site of specific conflicts. Others were later to turn this into one of the virtues of pagan religious life, its toleration of religious difference, but in this passage (virtually an aside) it is hard to detect a tone of anything but detachment from what the ‘heathens’ did. No doubt, it was a benefit that there should have been no ‘religious’ wars, but he is surely not making a claim for toleration as such. Secondly, he is seeing a contrast between matters of belief, or at least constancy of belief, and the maintenance of ritual traditions; and seeking to explain the freedom from religious conflict as the result of greater concern with ritual than with belief. Conflict, he is assuming, arises from consciously expressed religious views.

Faith · Islam · Monotheism · Theology · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices