“One of the best things about Catholicism is paganism,” I used to say occasionally, though I admit it now with a little embarrassment. There is some truth to it though. Unlike some forms of Christianity which completely reject the idea that God is immanent in this world, Catholicism operates out of a deep sense of what Fr. Andrew Greeley called “the Holy lurking in creation.” God is not off on a cloud somewhere, removed from the messiness of the physical world. By virtue of the Incarnation, God has re-infused a fallen world with His presence, making it possible for things like statues, beads, cloth, or even water and oil to become channels of the divine. “The world of the Catholic,” said Greeley, “is haunted by a sense that objects, events and persons of daily life are revelations of Grace.” This is why so many pagan practices were able to be converted into Catholic devotions.
But immanence also has a dark side. In a recent essay for First Things, Louise Perry makes the case that we have entered a period of re-paganization in our society. Perry is not a Christian, but she fears losing the moral framework that Christianity has provided, a framework that uniquely asserts that the poor are as valuable as the rich, women are not merely sexual objects for the use of men, and the rights of individuals must be protected. “Most cultures—perfectly logically—glorify warriors and kings, not those at the bottom of the heap…” she says. “‘God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong’ is a baffling and alarming claim to anyone from a society untouched by the strangeness of the Jesus movement.”
It is true that pure paganism, stripped of any Christian principles, quickly dissolves into moral chaos, and to a certain extent, I think Perry is right that this is what we are witnessing in the world today. But we can also overestimate the problem, and in so doing condemn ourselves to a kind of paranoid puritanism.
In another recent piece in First Things, Bishop Robert Barron laments a new advertising video from Apple. The video shows a team of Apple employees, led by Apple CEO Tim Cook, trying to convince a personified version of Mother Nature that the company’s efforts at reducing its carbon emissions are genuine. Mother Nature has heard all of this before, and so she responds with cynicism, but eventually she is begrudgingly convinced that Apple is living up to its promises. Barron characterizes the cold response of Mother Nature as an unappeasable nature goddess reclaiming her throne. “If you want to see what religious life looks like when you abandon the true God and turn to the worship of nature,” he says, “take a good, hard look at Apple's latest film and ask yourself whether this grumpy, intimidating, endlessly demanding, and finally impersonal goddess is for you.”
I can think of some good reasons for criticizing Apple’s advertisement. For starters, a number of the claims the company makes about how green it is are questionable, which means Mother Nature’s skepticism is probably warranted. Moreover, a giant corporation advertising its efforts at being environmentally friendly is inherently problematic, bringing into focus the fundamental assumptions of an economic system that cares more about looking good than being good. But paganism? Hardly. There is no hint of religious devotion in it, unless we are prepared to say that any effort to impress someone is a religious sacrifice in disguise.
The only proof that Barron offers for his claim, besides Mother Nature being “grumpy,” is the very fact of Mother Nature being personified. He points paradoxically to St. Francis of Assisi, who says in the Canticle of the Sun, “Praised be to You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us and who produces varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.” Barron says, “Though she might be our mother in an analogical sense, the earth, for Francis, remains our sister first and foremost.” This is, to put it mildly, a thin argument. Of course calling the earth “mother” is an analogy. So is calling the earth “sister.” So, for that matter, is calling the Church “mother.” In none of those cases does the appellation imply worship. Rather, it indicates the importance of the relationship. God creates us, but He does not simply drop us out of the sky. We are formed from the dust of the earth. This means that, as St. Francis recognized, the earth is worthy of our respect, protection, and even love. It does not mean that the earth is literally a person with agency and will.
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