The world before Descartes was a very different world than ours. Moreover, the non-Christianized world before Descartes was extremely different than ours. Or at least it used to be.
You see, the ancient world, and the premodern non-Christian world, which includes a lot of contemporary societies, had a few key ideas. These key ideas were the foundational presuppositions about the nature of society and humanity. I’d like to lay out 5 that are particularly and peculiarly important and interesting.
First, there is the concept of Demigods. Perseus, Heracles, Achilles, Siegfried, Cuchulainn, Maui, Gilgamesh, these are some of the biggest names in demigoddery. The ancient world believed that there were humans, men and women, who were children of the gods, through…unions…not always consensual…with humans. These men were heroes of old and men of renown. The Bible speaks of the Nephilim, not as children of demigods, but offspring of human mothers and fallen angels. This was a real belief. But oftentimes, people were credited with divine status postmortem. People who accomplished great and mighty things attained to the status of divinity or demidivinity.
Second, was the belief that somehow Utopia could be gained. Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar they all tried to build world empires that would create Utopias. Whether we think they would form the perfect society or not is really irrelevant. They thought they were creating the world the gods wanted.
Third, is the concept of the omphalos. This is the belly-button of the world. For the Greeks it was Delphi, for the Jews it was Jerusalem (though that term was only used later, as far as I can tell). Rome was the center of the world for the Romans. The idea was that there is a certain place that everything else revolves around.
Fourth, the idea of a religio-political center of the world is united to the idea of the palace and the temple being in union in the “great city”. Particularly for the Romans this idea meant that the place of rule also mediates the will of the gods to the entire world. The union of palace and temple – and altar – means that the center of the world politically, is also the center, religiously. Therefore, the political ruler is also the earthly means of mediating the grace and will of the gods to the rest of the world.
Fifth, this leads us to the natural end point of Emperor worship. This is the natural conclusion of the pagan worldview. The greatest ruler of the greatest city who mediates the will of the gods religiously and politically naturally must be more than a man – he must be a demigod.
Now, Shakespeare – taking his cues from the Bible – rejects this notion. Cassius talking about the divinity of Caesar says that he had to save Caesar from drowning when they tried to swim the Tiber. To Shakespeare, a Christian, the idea that Caesar was a god was preposterous.
And this is the biblical take on demigod rulers, in Ezekiel 29:
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says:
Your heart is proud,
and you have said,
‘I am a god;
I sit in the seat of gods
in the heart of the sea.’
Yet you are a man and not a god,
though you have regarded your heart
as that of a god.
Behold, you are wiser than Daniel;
no secret is hidden from you!
By your wisdom and understanding
you have gained your wealth
and amassed gold and silver
for your treasuries.
By your great skill in trading
you have increased your wealth,
but your heart has grown proud
because of it.
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says:
Because you regard your heart
as the heart of a god,
behold, I will bring foreigners against you,
the most ruthless of nations.
They will draw their swords
against the beauty of your wisdom
and will defile your splendor.
They will bring you down to the Pit,
and you will die a violent death
in the heart of the seas.
Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’
in the presence of those who slay you?
You will be only a man, not a god,
in the hands of those who wound you.
You will die the death of the uncircumcised
at the hands of foreigners.
For I have spoken,
declares the Lord GOD.”
There are no demigods. Rulers are not gods and they aren’t worthy of worship. In the Christian worldview. But in the pagan worldview – absolutely they’re worthy of worship! And, in case you haven’t noticed, the pagan worldview is just a funhouse mirror version of God’s will for the world. There is a God-Man hero who will rule the world and he does deserve worship – that’s Jesus. And humans can achieve to a higher status – that’s glorification. And the Ezekiel’s Temple in Jerusalem will be the center of the world, when God, through Christ, shall mediate grace and blessing and peace and prosperity and justice. Messiah’s Kingdom of God will be the Utopia of humanity’s dreams, only other and else than what they’d envisioned because in God’s Kingdom God is glorified and adored first and foremost, not man.
Now, for a long time first, under Christendom, then later under modernism, we left off the old pagan notions. But they’re coming back. There’s a reason I call Wokeism Secular Paganism. Because it is. It’s Secular; and it is Pagan.
Let’s just look at one example. Recently, after President Biden’s inaugural address, one commentator became…enthused…as to Biden’s capacity to bring peace and prosperity to us. Sending forth these tidings of comfort and joy, Eddie Glaude said…things…He calls the inauguration a ritual; he talks about ghosts, and how Trump was going to have American haunted by ghosts…I’m not kidding. I wish I were, but I’m not kidding. Seriously…watch the clip.
But worse than that – he says that President Biden is like Messiah in the Bible healing the brokenhearted and binding up our wounds. That’s Psalm 147. Here’s 147 in the NIV. Let’s see how appropriate it is to apply this to human beings:
Praise the Lord.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
The Lord sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;
make music to our God on the harp.
He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.
He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Extol the Lord, Jerusalem;
praise your God, Zion.
He strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.
He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.
He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?
He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.
He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.
Praise the Lord.
The answer is “not appropriate”. Now, in fairness, Christians are supposed to be like Christ. So, maybe, MAYBE, you could make the argument that Eddie Glaude was simply applying the Psalmist’s descriptions of Messiah to a man because in some small way, that’s what President Biden was doing and would do. Maybe. But I doubt it…you know…cause of all the other pagan nonsense he’d already spouted.
Here’s the thing. I don’t want to worship men as gods. And I won’t. And Christians put far, far too much of their hope in Trump. And while I don’t think it was the norm, there certainly were a lot of people who began to idolize Donald Trump. And that’s bad. But Christians got pushback from other Christians. They got internal pushback.
What internal pushback will Secular Pagans get for behaving paganishly? Who amongst the Woke is going to say, “Hey, Eddie, listen friend…we’re not really into the emperor cult ‘round here…so let’s dial it back a bit. You’re paganism is at like an 8, right now, and we need it at like a 4…cool?...thanks brochach”? Who’s gonna says so? Look we’ve already got media types saying how they ought to perform the duties of the hetairai, Corinthianizing with Bill Clinton because of abortion rights. It’s only gonna get more pronounced and more clearly pagan, especially as we move more fully into postmodernity and the secular part of Secular Paganism shrinks ever smaller and the Pagan part looms ever larger.