Interesting post here from Jason at Wild Hunt Blog. He reports that Douglas Ezzy has been analyzing the Pagan data from the 2006 Australian census and the growth rates have slowed down measurably since 1991. Phil Johnson and I had been wondering if this would be the case. I expect some interesting speculation as to what this heralds for the Australian religious scene (and the wider western scene) will follow.
Curious Christian
Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective
Is Paganism’s Growth Leveling Off?
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7 responses to “Is Paganism’s Growth Leveling Off?”
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In my opinion, modern Paganism had been growing too fast. A slow, sensible, and manageable growth rate will help secure our guaranteed future more than periods of explosive growth that are fueled by media-driven enterprises. Collectively we need time to “catch up” to our booming numbers and devise methods of facing the future, providing experienced leadership, and achieve political goals.
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Blame all those atheist authors — Hitchens, Bawkins et al.
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Jason. Hmmm. Thought provoking. Philip has suggested we could see the emergence of more institutional forms of Paganism as the movement matures. Do you think that point could now be approaching?
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Personally I don’t think the emergence of fundamentalist Atheism has much to do with it. Instead, I recon it has more to do with (a) the fact that Pagan values have spead far beyond the movement itself over the last decade, taking some of its energy with them; and (b) internal resistance “fluff bunnies” and a desire to recapture the earlier seriousness of the movement – which I think ties in to some of what Jason is saying; and (c) enui setting in amongst spiritual consumers, where many of the fluff bunnies were coming from before.
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Actually I think the athiest authors are a symptom, rather than a cause. There have always been such authors, well, at least for the last 150 years or so, and they have all said much the same kiunds of things. But the fact that they are getting so much exposure indicates that secularism is taking deeper root. The fundamentalists are just te tip of the iceberg. I’ve read the blogs of people who have been Anglican clergy, then Wiccans, then something else, and are now nothing in particular. They’ve tried a lot of religions, and lost interest.
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Well I hope it doesn’t die off before its mission to the church proves a little more fruitful.
One area of pagan mission would be to help the Church get over its Urban Chauvinism. I’m not anti-City but I think paganism has the potential to help those who are alientated from nature and ancestral tradition to find some restoration.
I suppose this is a somewhat romantic view; I seem to run after pagans saying, “evangelise me, by Gaia, please evangelise me!”, but they don’t seem that interested…LikeLike
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Hi Steve,
I would say that the present crop of new-Atheist writers are evidence of an increase in the market demand for their ideas, and that their largest market consists of fearful secularists being radicalized into atheism through the Bush presidency and (relatedly) the perceived threat of militant Islamists.
Mr. Bush’s supporters have been successfully (and in a certain proportion of cases, quite correctly) characterised as theocratic; that’s the vital link.
For historical parallels, see the effect of church support for central European monarchies in the 1820-50 period, and the upsurge of radical criticism in the universities. If the church is seen to support an unpopular regime, then it becomes politically important that the church be undermined.
That’s the dynamic I see happening here. It will be interesting to see how strongly it continues past a change in government, or how it is modified by progressive enlightenment in Islam or a middle-eastern peace accord. Or if Islam moves toward a concept of ‘toleration’ like that adopted in England after the religious wars of the 1600s.
Without fundamentalism or theocracy as the bogeyman, atheism has trouble separating people from a spiritually ambiguous secularity.
Nigel.LikeLike
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