C. S. Lewis wrote, “When grave persons express their fear that England is relapsing into Paganism, I am tempted to reply, `Would that she were.’” Because pagans have been shown to be convertible to Christianity, but post-Christians have shown more resistance. Pagans appeal to gods who cannot hear them and suffer for it. Post-Christians still benefit from the God they rejected and believe they have earned all they receive. Lewis wished we could find our spiritual poverty again so that we would see the riches to be found in Christ Jesus.
Today Englishman Bob Davey has taken up saving an abandoned church in Norfolk from local pagans. After cleaning up the church, he worked over the graveyard. “But even after he had driven the Devil from the door, still his acolytes returned. On every Witches’ Sabbath – special dates in the Pagan calendar – Mr Davey spent the night camped out in the church, on guard duty.” It can get ugly.
Meanwhile, “The Church of England is trying to recruit pagans and spiritual believers as part of a drive to retain congregation numbers.”
“Some Pagan gods were lawless, and some Christian saints were a little too serious; but the spirits of modern spiritualism are both lawless and serious – a disgusting combination.”
– G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles
I’ve often wondered if Lewis would have said the same thing if he’d lived to our day. I suspect he’d say that modern pagans aren’t the same as the original pagans — in fact I’m pretty sure he says just that somewhere.
In the quote I linked to, which is from “Is Theism important,” he describes the kind of pagan he is talking about. It’s similar to the Hinduism you can see in Nepal today, so that context he might say something at least a little different. But I wonder if his point isn’t still on the mark, because he says the divorcee is different from the virgin, and we seem to still have that difference at work in today’s post-moderns.