My latest piece at MercatorNet is a brief reflection on the neo-pagan temple planned in Iceland, and some of the complexity in seeking to recreate long-dead religious beliefs and practices:
For some people, winking at “pagan roots” is just enough to impart a sense of having the inside knowledge, a real-life Dan Brown factoid sufficient to keep Christianity safely at arms-length, to hint at a more complex and mysterious past, a romantic and yet nebulous foil to the deeply ingrained messages and themes of our Christian heritage. We can readily imagine some deep, earthy pagan heritage underlying and ready to overrun a seemingly banal Christianity.
