If Wicca is an accpetance [sic] that they're are many gods, male and female, and that we are unable to live without one or the other, then does that mean that a wiccain cand [sic] also believe in God?
It's not like we kick you out if you believe certain things. The question is whether it is logical to call someone Wiccan based on what they believe or disbelieve.
By "God" I presume you mean the Judeo-Christian god, a monotheistic god. If one believes in many gods and goddesses, he simply can't also believe in a single all-powerful god. It simply does not compute. Personally, I suspect that there *is* a deity listening to the prayers of Christians, Jews and Muslims. But I don't believe he's the only god out there. So I think his followers have some very basic errors in their concept of him.
This is one of the reasons I think the idea of "Christian-Wicca" is so poorly constructed, or at the very least poorly named. You cannot honestly be both a Christian and a Wiccan. You cannot be both a polytheist and a monotheist.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You can't be both a monotheist and a polytheist?
What about the Neoplatonists, or Dion Fortune, or for that matter, Gerald Gardner (think about what he says about an ultimate deity, though one who does not concern itself immediately in human concerns).
The conflict is more with the particular models of Monotheism espoused by some religions, particularly the Christian idea of a single personal god who is omnipotent, omniscient and actively concerned with this plane, and with particular models of Polytheism (you can probably fit the "the gods are just aspects" form of polytheism to match just about anything).
Personally, I'm very definitely a polytheist and not monotheist (well, pretty agnostic as to the question of whether there is an indifferent mono-deity of the sort Gardner describes), but I don't see how you can say "You cannot be both a polytheist and a monotheist." when so many people are and have been historically.
If 'polytheism' means one almighty God 'wearing masks' for different occasions/purposes, then it is monotheism. if Monotheism means more than one deity, then that is not monotheism, unless you're simply misusing or misunderstanding the words involved.
You can indeed be both a Polytheist and a Monotheist. The Ancient Egyptians were both.
The Supreme self-Created God Atum represented a Monotheistic world-view while the various Deities below him/her represented a Polytheistic view. The ancients simply did not think they way we do. As Westerners our rational is based in Greek Rational thought. This mode of logic was not invented until vary late in antiquity. Further, Eastern religions such as Hinduism are also both Mono and Poly-theistic.
Just because westerners can't wrap our heads around the idea that both Polytheism and Monotheism are complementary only demonstrates Western narrow-mindedness that is based in Christian biases. (ie.If this is true that can't be.)
Mon⋅o⋅the⋅ism
–noun
the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.
-The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
_______________________________
The definition of monotheism says it all. There is, in fact, a difference between believing in an all powerful God that is a sort of progenitor to all other Gods, and the existence of a single all powerful deity. Seems like a lot of people confuse that.
Even if the one Deity is the "ultimate deity" in some way, the existence of any others besides the one implies polytheism.
I would say you can argue that some polytheists are closer to monotheists and some monotheists are actually polytheists. You can't really be both without butchering the definition of both terms.
To my understanding Mr. Gardner did acknowledge an "ultimate reality" (the "One", the "All", or "God"), although his focus was on the God and Goddess. Therefore, I suspect that he at times subscribed to a form of monotheism expressed through symbolic bi-theism, which is exactly how I approach Wicca. Then again, I can see where Gardner seemed to Wrestle with concepts at times.
I am sure that he was not "monotheistic" in the same way that the big three are (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), meaning he did not view "God" as having the same qualities as them, but it seems to me that at some point he was in fact a monotheist. Remember, just because some have a hatred of monotheism ala the big three does not make monotheism a bad approach, nor an unreasonable one.
As mentioned, to me there is an ultimate reality, and the God and Goddess are essentially symbols that provide an understanding of that reality.
One thing about monotheism and polytheism, is that the deity described by any monotheism is not just quantitatively, but qualitatively, different to those described by any polytheism.
Anything which reconciles monotheism and polytheism does so on the basis that what a monotheist means by "god" is very different to what a polytheist means by "a god". Similarly, this is how those forms of Buddhism that have gods reconcile such polytheism with the atheism of Buddhsim; they hold that their are beings that may be called gods in the polytheist understanding of gods but that there is no ultimate being of the sort that a monotheist would understand as god.
In much of the far east Islamic monotheism is combined with older animist practises in much the same way (one could argue the latter is or is not polytheist).
I do not think that Gardner was a bi-theist in the sense of his believing in two gods (specifically, in a god or a goddess), he may have been but there is nothing to indicate that he is, and plenty to hint that he saw there as being gods beyond those two. He was a Trad Wiccan though, which meant he had a practice that addressed the God and the Goddess of the Wicca.
He's not particularly relevant to the question of how Wicca as defined here can be combined with monotheism, as Wicca as defined here is very different to Trad Wicca in having a much greater focus upon "Wiccan beliefs". Trad Wiccans do though include some, like Gardner, who are examples of the greater question of how monotheism and polytheism can be combined. He also writes of a stronger example, of a co-religious who also regularly attended Anglican services.
As to whether Wicca as it is meant here can be combined with monotheism I can't really say, being Trad Wiccan, but on the question of whether monotheism and polytheism generally can be reconciled, I can think of plenty of examples, as much as I'm inclined to disagree with them personally.