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  • Pagan Ethics: Paganism as a World Religion by Michael York
  • Ethan Doyle White
Pagan Ethics: Paganism as a World Religion. By Michael York. Springer, 2016. xiii + 434 pages. $249.00 cloth; ebook available.

Pagan Ethics is the second in a proposed trilogy that began with Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion (New York University Press, 2003). The fact that these works are overtly theological makes them difficult to review under the normal criteria with which we might discuss studies of new religious movements. Like its predecessor, Pagan Ethics is an academic work, written by a (retired) professional scholar, and [End Page 133] published by a recognized academic publisher. At the same time, it is the work of a modern Pagan, operating under emic assumptions about the nature of Paganism, and promoting a Pagan worldview. Is it to be reviewed as an academic study of Paganism, or rather as a case study in modern Pagan intellectual activity?

A sociologist of religion by training, Michael York has previously held teaching positions at Bath Spa University and more recently at Cherry Hill Seminary, a Pagan theological institute based in South Carolina. He is perhaps the most important academic theologian active within the modern Pagan milieu today. Yet York uses a theological definition of "paganism" that differs considerably from that employed by most scholars of the phenomenon. Rather than regarding Paganism as an array of new religious movements inspired by the pre-Christian belief systems of Europe and its neighboring regions (Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry, etc.), York adopts the inclusive and expansive definition favored by many Pagans themselves. For him, paganism (always lower case) applies to a very broad, trans-historical and trans-cultural array of belief systems that have a shared way of being religious, from Santería to Shinto. In York's view, paganism is "the old earth-spirituality and root-religious practice" of humanity (8), so integral to our species that "to be human, whether we recognize it or not, is to be pagan and vice versa" (4). Somewhat conflicting with the previous quotation but reflecting his theological approach, York tells us that the "true pagan" is "the individual who is maturely in attunement with the cosmos" (414). York used this same broad definitional framework in Pagan Theology, and in doing so he is virtually alone among scholars of modern Paganism, many of whom have openly distanced themselves from his definition.

At more than 400 pages sub-divided into five parts, Pagan Ethics is a dense tome covering a great deal of ground, meaning that any brief summary can hardly do it justice. The central theme of the work is York's attempt to locate a core "moral position" (5) shared by all those he regards as pagan, although he does allow for some "sectarian" diversity among different pagan religions (367). Influenced by Graham Harvey's concept of "new animism," he proposes that "paganism is ethics, that is, that paganism is a particular understanding of the divine that merits a particular kind of relationship to it, for it, by it and from it" (5). Specifically, he argues that a pagan ethical approach entails taking into consideration the full ramifications of an action upon a whole community, including non-human "animate beings" (407) such as animals, spirits, and "idols." At the same time, he insists that "enjoying life is fully pagan" (408) and that paganism fully embraces the sensual and the erotic.

In arguing for a core ethical ethos behind paganism, York presents specific pagan understandings of various ethical issues, but risks [End Page 134] imposing a particular view as normative over substantial diversity. For instance, the reader is told that "as a rule, pagans fail to see how the institution of marriage is undermined and/or threatened by the legal and social acceptance" of same-sex partnerships (262). This may be the case for liberal-oriented Western Pagans like York himself, but can hardly be said for the modern Pagans of the former Soviet Bloc, nor of the vast majority of those York calls pagan in Africa, the Caribbean, or Asia.

As a non-Pagan, non-theological academic, I remain unconvinced that York's definitional framework is analytically advantageous...

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